The Protector
by BoneyCastle237
Summary: Callie is the protector, always has been, but when her protective instincts cause a serious injury, she learns the hard way that she can't keep being the human shield. She has to trust someone else to keep everyone safe and trust is hard for her. All about protective Callie and Stef. AU from the pilot; the night does end very very badly, as Stef said it could have.
1. Promise Me?

**_Hello there Fosters Fandom! This is my first ever Fosters fic, I am a big fan of the Stef/Callie relationship, so you can be guaranteed to see a lot of that in this fic, also i'm on the fence about Brallie, so please leave me a review and let me know if you want this to be a Brallie or just have them as a brother/sister kind of thing. feedback, good or bad, is encouraged, please please please let me know what you thinK! BC xox_**

* * *

She shouldn't have brought him, she should have fought him harder.

Callie slides her eyes to Brandon, watches his leg bounce up and down, his fingers tap a rhythm on his knee to a beat only he can hear.

He looks nervous.

She has a bad feeling about this.

As the bus stops to pick up more passengers, Callie mentally plans out her rescue mission.

Her stomach turns, the fact that Jude _needs_ to be rescued makes her physically ill. She left him unprotected, she left him in danger, her baby brother, the one thing in the world she has left that is untainted and pure.

Even as she thinks it, she knows its true; she hasn't been pure, not for a long time. Not since _him, _not since he violated her so completely.

But even then, when she was at her absolute lowest, she still stood strong, for him, for Jude, she still protected him, put on a brave face, pretended everything was fine, hid her emotions behind a mask she had long since perfected.

Tonight she was going to right a wrong, even as she wronged a right.

She was going to do right by her little brother, but do wrong by Brandon.

She could tell that Brandon was the type of person that followed the law to the letter, did what he was told by his parents, never broke the rules.

She realises that she's playing right into the stereotype. By bringing Brandon, the straight-A, musical prodigy along with her, taking him into a potentially dangerous situation, she is doing exactly what she is sure Lena and Stef feared she would.

She is being a bad influence on him, despite the fact that he is probably older than her, she is leading him astray and Callie knows that his moms will not take too kindly to this.

His _moms_.

She catches sight of his reflection in the window across from them no longer obstructed by a little old lady.

He_ looks_ like he has two moms, it seems silly to think that you can tell someone's parentage by their appearance, and yet she feels like she can.

His eyes, which are currently darting back and forth as though he expects at any minute to get caught, are soft and kind, like he grew up being doted on by two loving and caring mothers. He was probably taught by those same mothers, to love and care for others.

Its not his fault he's here, he was just raised right.

And now she is leading him wrong.

She can't quite place why she feels so guilty, why she cares about this boy she has known for less than 24 hours.

She knows she wont let anything happen to him, that's not her style. She is the protector, always has been, she is the one who shields and guards, not the damsel in distress. She knows that if this goes as horribly wrong as she has a feeling it will, she will be able to protect him, even if she has to trade her life for his.

He is worth it.

Not to her, she could happily step off the bus and never see him again and not spare him a second thought. Its not that she cares about him at all, its that _someone_ does.

If something happened to Brandon, his mothers would be devastated, his brother and sister, the twins, would be lost. The kids at school, his friends, his girlfriend -people would miss him.

He is worth something in this world, he is worth something to people, he matters to them and for that reason alone, she would risk her life for his.

Because she doesn't have that.

She has Jude. Her baby brother. She is all the people in his life, his mom, his dad, his sister, his. Everything she has done in the past six years has been about him, has been _for _him.

Every beating she took was one he didn't have to. Every meal she didn't eat was one he did. Every injustice she suffered in silence, was so that she could stay with him, so that she could protect him.

Apart from Jude, she was worthless to everyone else. She had been told as much by nearly every foster parent she'd lived with to date. In some ways, she was even a hindrance to Jude. He was a cute kid, he had an adorable smile and a sweet demeanour about him, something she had fought hard to ensure he kept.

If they weren't a package deal, he could be adopted by a family that would be able to love and support him in ways she couldn't.

But while without her Jude could get adopted, he could just as easily be sent to another foster home, a worse foster home. That's the only thing that keeps her fighting, that keeps her from leaving him behind, the knowledge that while things could be a lot better, they could also be worse.

That is why she is doing this, risking the best foster home she has ever been in, because she still matters in Jude's eyes, she is still worth something to him.

She doesn't trust the Fosters, doesn't trust that Stef and Lena are as good as they seem, because in her experience, when something seems too good to be true, it usually is.

She doesn't trust Brandon either, not fully, but he's still with her, still riding the bus that is now only two stops away from where they need to be, and that tells her that he at least partially cares about her, or Jude.

If anything goes wrong tonight, she knows that Brandon is her best bet.

'Hey Brandon,'

Her voice is scratchy, she hasn't spoken since she told him about wrecking her foster dad's car nearly twenty minutes ago.

Brandon looks up, meeting her eyes in the reflective glass.

"Yeah?"

She stares straight at him as she replies, she needs him to understand how serious this is.

"If anything happens to me, you have to promise me you will make sure Jude is okay."

Its not a question, she hasn't asked him for any favours and she doesn't plan on starting now.

She sees him startle, his eyes breaking contact with hers in the window as he turns to face her.

"Callie -"

She cuts him off, rolling her eyes as she shifts to face him as well.

"I'm not saying something's gonna happen, but I just want to make sure that Jude will be somewhere safe. You know.. in case."

He doesn't look convinced so she continues.

"You know how when you go out, you take an umbrella but it never rains? But then the _one day_ you don't take the umbrella, it starts pouring down? Its like that; if you prepare for the worst, it won't happen, but if you don't, then it will."

She messed it up, she can see by the look on his face that he doesn't understand what she means at all, the whole 'umbrella' thing made a lot more sense when her mother said it, it was her mom's 'Be prepared' speech.

Maybe he just doesn't believe her.

She doesn't really believe herself.

"Brandon just please, promise me?"

She grits her teeth. She doesn't beg. Ever. But she's already risking everything to save her brother, why not her pride as well?

He must realise that she is not one for saying 'please' because his eyes immediately soften, his shoulders slump in defeat.

He answers her, albeit reluctantly.

"I promise."

She breathes a sigh of relief and relaxes against the back of her seat.

"But Callie? Everthing's gonna be fine."

He looks away from her as he speaks, like he doesn't want to lie to her face.

He has a bad feeling too.

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**_Alrighty so there is Chapter 1! I have the second one ready and waiting, so if i get a good response, it will be up by sunday :) please review and lemme know what you thought, and if you know of any good stef/callie fic out there, or if you have written one yourself, i would love to read it :) BC xox_**


	2. He has a gun

_**Wow! i am completely overwhelmed by the response to the first chapter! THank you to everyone who reviewed! it was awesome to get so much positive feedback! I have decided that this will NOT be a Brallie fic, you all wanted to see them as brother/sister and thats what i'm gonna write! This chapter is still just setting up, no stef yet, but i promise she will be in the next one! It just saves having to tell this all in a flashback later and have it cut into the Callie/Stef scenes! **_

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By the time they get to her old foster home, the sun has well and truly set.

Brandon surreptitiously checks his phone in his pocket.

12 Missed Calls.

He knows who they will be from; his mom, Lena, maybe his dad.

He is missing his music competition, something he has been working towards for months.

They are going to be so mad at him.

He stops on the sidewalk, falling a few steps behind Callie, who shows no intention of slowing down for him.

He should call his mom, he knows he should. His finger hovers over her name, his mind already planning what to tell her, how best to explain what he's done.

He sucks in a breath, his heart warring with his brain.

His heart wants to help Callie, wants to save her brother from the beatings and who knows what else and keep Callie out of Juvie. But his brain knows that the best way to do that is to tell his mom, trust that she will save them both.

But in the little time that he's known her, Brandon has come to realise that Callie trusts no one. She doesn't know or trust Stef or Lena and despite the fact that she made him promise he'd look out for her brother, Brandon doesn't think she trusts him either.

If he calls his mom now, Callie will never trust any of them, he's certain of that.

But they are going into a dangerous situation. Callie has already told him that her foster father beat Jude at least once. A guy that's willing to hit a little kid is sure to have no qualms about hitting a sixteen year old boy.

He certainly didn't hold back from hitting Callie.

Brandon feels strangely protective towards her, hates the fact that someone hurt her - repeatedly - and now they are walking straight into the lion's den.

He looks up, seeing that Callie has reached the end of the street they're on.

As he starts walking, he does the math in his head, knows that even if he does call his mom, it will take her at least twenty minutes to get to them and he knows that Callie is not going to sit around and wait for anyone, if anything she will rush into the house and put them all in more danger.

He puts his phone back into his pocket and jogs to catch up to Callie. He's smart, he can protect her, make sure that everything goes okay, that he wont have to keep his promise, he wont have to keep Jude safe because she will.

* * *

Callie peers through the door, running her eyes over Jude as he washes dishes in the sink, searching for any visible injuries, anything that could slow them down if they have to run. Seeing none, she lets out the breath she was holding before tapping on the glass to get his attention.

"Jude"

She whispers loudly, doesn't want to risk speaking, if her foster father hears her, it'll all be over, and if she scares Jude and he drops something, it'll all be worse.

She taps on the window one more time, but the water is running in the sink and her brother can't hear her.

She steps away from the door, back into the shadows, blows a piece of hair out of her eyes and tries to keep her breathing even as she thinks.

Her head snaps up when she hears the knocking on the door.

"Hello? Is anybody home? I-I need help!"

Callie's blood runs cold as she hears Brandon's voice.

_What is this idiot doing?! _

The plan had been for Brandon to knock over all the trashcans round the side of the house, make a lot of noise. Callie would then go in through the back door, grab Jude and get out while her foster father was outside investigating the noise.

_This is not the plan! _

She cant protect Brandon from here, she can't protect either of the boys.

She holds her breath as she hears footsteps, takes a step backwards and lets go of the doorknob as she hears His voice.

"Yeah hold on!"

An involuntary shiver runs through her as she hears Him talk to Jude.

"Are you deaf or what?"

She sees Him open the front door, sees Brandon shifting from foot to foot, trying to ask directions to the metro.

Taking advantage of the distraction Brandon has provided, she pushes the door open, keeping her eyes glued to the back of her foster father's head. Her peripheral vision working over-time to ensure she doesn't bump into anything that would give her presence away.

She sees Brandon looking at her over her foster father's shoulder, failing miserably at being subtle about it.

Callie moves faster, knows that Brandon is going to give her away any second now.

She takes her eyes off the two at the front door for a second, just long enough to clock where Jude is, he's looking at her, of course he is. She is his protector, he trusts her with his life, and he looks to her when it is in danger.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

He was angry, probably drunk as well.

A split second of eye contact with Jude was all she allowed herself, just long enough to tell him everything she didn't have time to put into words.

_I love you, I'm here for you, I'm gonna get you out._

She watched him cover his ears, her sensitive little boy. He hated yelling, hated hearing her get hurt even more.

Her foster father moved towards her, shouting at her even as she shouted back.

They yelled over each other, neither hearing what the other had to say.

Callie was hyper aware of where everyone was, her mind already calculating how long it would take to get to Jude, or alternatively, how long she could keep the Drunk occupied while Brandon and Jude got the hell out.

She could see Brandon coming through the door. Her heart picked up speed. She needed him to stay outside, he is too far away from her, he is in the exact wrong spot for her to be able to keep him safe.

She yells louder, hoping to keep the attention on her and away from Brandon, who is starting to move towards them.

She hears him shout when her foster dad grips her shoulders and shakes her. On a normal day she could take it, but the beating she took in juvie had left her ribs sore and tender and the movement aggravates them further, sending pain searing through her chest and lungs.

She is rapidly losing control of the situation, her mind working harder through the pain to think of a way out.

This isn't the rescue mission she had in mind.

Her ribs are on fire and each breath is like inhaling boiling water, but she can take the pain, she will always take it.

Callie keeps shouting despite the burning in her lungs, desperately trying to make herself a target, trying to make him shout at _her_, look at _her_.

It doesn't work, He's seen Brandon come in.

Callie realises she has lost complete control over the whole situation when He pulls out the gun and points it at Brandon.

Brandon doesn't freeze, she can't imagine he has ever been faced with a gun before, but he doesn't lose his cool, he raises his arms and backs up very quickly.

This isn't how it was supposed to go, Brandon was never meant to be in this kind of danger.

She knows she has to act fast, has to bring the focus back to herself.

Her heart in her throat, Callie picks up the nearest object, the huge lamp sitting on the desk, and with all the strength and adrenaline she has, she hurls the lamp at her foster father, gasping in a breath as she feels her ribs crack under the strain.

The lamp smashes as his feet, injuring no one, but capturing everyone's attention.

He spins on his heels and looks at her, she knows she should be afraid, but she feels strangely calm knowing that Brandon and Jude were safe for at least as long as she was staring down the barrel of the gun.

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**_Alright, so im trying to keep it as close to the actual episode as i can, so picture the same foster house and everything. Also if anyone can think of a good name for the foster father, i'm open to suggestions! otherwise he is just being referred to as 'Him and He' but with capital letters. Keep reviewing, makes me write faster! And i promise there will be Stef/Callie moments in the next chapter! BC xox_**


	3. Human Shield

**_Alright, next chapter. Firstly thank you again for all the reviews, they make me smile and i love hearing what you all think! I try to reply to them all, but to the guests who review; just thank you. They mean the world to me :)) This chapter is the whole reason i wrote this fic so i would really appreciate feedback! _**

**_Okay okay no more, just read it! _**

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The room falls deathly silent.

No one moves an inch.

Callie locks eyes with Him, hopes he can't see the fear she is desperately trying to hide.

She lived in this house for six months, long enough for Him to know her strengths and weaknesses.

Not that she made it hard for him - she doesn't have many of either.

He knows that her strength is her ability to withstand incredible amounts of pain. He had once beaten her to within an inch of her life with the heavy iron curtain rod that Jude accidentally pulled down during a game of hide and seek.

She had taken every hit in relative silence as her brother sat in the corner, his face pressed to the wall, his hands over his ears.

When Jude ironed the front of His favourite T-Shirt, effectively ruining the picture, He had hit her with the still-hot appliance, leaving a neat triangle the size of his palm permanently burned into her shoulder blade. She had barely flinched.

He knew she could take whatever pain he could put her through.

It was her weakness that He was more interested in.

Jude.

The only thing in the world she gave a damn about was her baby brother and He knew it.

Callie watched the thoughts play across his face, she was something of an expert when it came to reading facial expressions and body language, being able to predict someone's actions milliseconds before they occurred had saved her a lot of pain.

Her stay in juvie had only sharpened this skill, made her more adept at reading people.

The look on His face told her exactly how he planned on hurting her.

Jude.

She had seconds to do something before He turned the gun on her little brother.

Trying to overpower him would be a mistake, she knew from past experiences that when it came to brute strength, he had the clear advantage.

But she knew him, knew that he liked to hurt her emotionally as well as physically.

He liked to torture her with his words; beat her until she could no longer fight back and then torment her by threatening Jude, because being too weak to defend her brother hurt her more than any hit he could land and He knew it.

She was counting on him doing just that, hurting her first, it was the only way to buy Jude more time.

Usually it didn't frighten her, _He_ didn't frighten her.

But tonight he had a gun, and that made him so much more dangerous than usual.

If he wasn't armed, she would rush him, slam her body into his, throw him off balance, make him hurt her.

He would kick her, punch her, hit her, slap her. He would beat her down again and again and she would keep getting back up, keep fighting back.

Just like usual.

He once told her that she didn't know when to quit, didn't know when to just stay down, but she did. She knew she had to keep fighting until he got tired, too tired to hurt Jude. She had to fight just long enough to make sure he took out all his anger on her, exhausted himself on _her_.

She would stay down when he'd had enough, when she was sure he was spent.

If he didn't have a gun, she would take him, but he did and for once in her life, Callie didn't know if she could protect Jude.

"Look I'm sorry about your car! I'll pay for the damages!"

She hoped he couldn't hear the panic in her voice, the pure unadulterated fear she was trying her best to disguise.

She just wanted to stall him, give herself more time to think of a plan.

He took a step towards her and she stepped back, her shoulder hitting the door.

"Get out of my house."

His voice was loud and his words slurred.

She eyed him wearily as he stumbled over the broken pieces of lamp at his feet, waving the gun at her, his finger not quite on the trigger.

Callie tore her eyes off her foster father for a minute, flicking them first at Brandon and then Jude.

Brandon had retreated further away from Him and was now standing at the front door, one hand on the doorknob and the other gripping his backpack strap tightly.

Jude was still rooted to the spot in front of the sink, his eyes full of pure terror that she could do nothing to erase, his hands clamped over his ears, blocking out the shouting.

"I just wanna talk to Jude, just lemme talk to him!"

She was shouting now, trying to make him angry. She hoped that if she made him mad enough, he would attack her. Not with the gun, but with his fists, just like he always did.

She took another step back, putting herself in the doorway. She wanted him to follow and she wasn't disappointed.

"I swear to god sweetheart, if you don't get the hell out of here right now!"

He took another step towards her, blinking rapidly as his vision blurred, the alcohol in his system finally starting to work in Callie's favour.

Callie looked at Brandon, his eyes were trained on her face, waiting for her direction.

She met his gaze before flicking her eyes to Jude and back to him, the look spoke volumes.

_You promised. _

Brandon slowly let go of the screen door, taking a tentative step towards the kitchen.

Callie focused back on her foster father, he was shouting unintelligibly at her, slurring his words and waving the gun around, his movements becoming more disjointed as he struggled to walk over the pieces of ceramic littering the floor.

She saw something move out of the corner of her eye, could hear someone coming towards the back door.

She stood in the doorway and braced her hands on either side, her fingers digging into the wood, blocking the entrance and ensuring no one could get past her, coming in or out.

"Police! Freeze! Get down on your knees now!"

She recognised Stef by the sound of her voice alone, her eyes never leaving her foster father.

Callie watched as a man entered through the front door, placing himself between Brandon and her foster father. From the way he moved, the way he cleared the room before pointing his gun at her foster father, Callie guessed he was a cop too.

Jude made no attempt to move, taking his cues from his sister, he remained frozen in place, just like her.

Callie felt her arm bend painfully as Stef tried to walk through it to get into the house, her gun raised and trained on her foster father.

She held her arm firm and Stef eased herself back slightly, not wanting to hurt the teen.

"Callie I need you to move."

Stef's voice was low but not unkind in her ear, she pressed her body into Callie's arm again, expecting the girl to listen and drop the limb.

The teen's only response was to take a small step back, forcing Stef further out of the house.

Callie was studying her foster father, reading him.

She saw an anger she had only seen once before, on the first night he had hit Jude, when Callie called 911, foolishly believing the police would protect her.

They didn't, and she paid dearly for her attempt, she still had scars on her chest, shoulders and neck from where he had beat and slashed her with the fire poker.

Callie feared this anger, it made him brave, made him reckless, he hadn't even bothered to hurt her in places she could hide easily like her stomach or arms, he'd been ruthless and Callie had genuinely feared for her life.

"Callie move."

This time, Callie could hear the anger and urgency in Stef's voice, quiet as the command was, the cop managed to put a lot of power and authority into the simple two words.

She didn't move.

Callie tensed her arms, pushed harder against the doorway, worried that Stef was going to try and force her way in.

She thought about Brandon, and the twins she had spent only a handful of minutes with. It was their mother standing behind her.

Callie thought of her own mother, her smell, her touch, the feeling of complete safety that she felt in her mom's presence, the feeling she hadn't felt since the night her mom was killed and her and Jude sentenced to the hell that was the foster system.

"Drop the gun and get down on your knees! Do it now!"

The other cop shouted at her foster father, who showed no intention of doing either.

He hadn't moved since Stef had arrived and the look in his eye made Callie nervous. She knew he hated cops with a passion, and _he_ knew he wasn't going to be able to talk his way out of this situation, there was no way he could pin it on the troubled foster kid and have her sent to juvie.

Callie shifted her weight on her feet so her body moved in front of Stef's, shielding the cop from her foster father, but also partially blocking the blonde's view of him.

It was stupid. Stef had a gun and was literally trained for these kinds of situations, but all it would take was a shot to the head, and Brandon, Mariana and Jesus would get to experience first hand, the pain that Callie had lived with for the past six years, the pain of losing a mom.

She would not be the reason these kids lost their mom.

She would not make Lena a widow.

She would not let Stef get hurt, not for such a worthless cause.

So Callie did the only thing she knew she was good at; she protected her.

She could hear the other cop yelling at her foster father to put down the weapon, his own gun trained on the drunk's head.

Stef was shouting similar orders, pressing hard against Callie's arm, her elbow hitting the teen hard in the ribs as she tried to move the girl out of the way so she could see what was happening.

Callie could feel the tendons in her arm protesting as her elbow bent the wrong way. Her ribs were on fire and all the muscles in her upper body burned as she tensed them, having to fight hard to hold Stef back, keep the cop behind her, keep her safe.

Callie could feel the tension rolling off the blonde woman, could sense the anger as well as the fear as the cop tried again to force her way past the teen while not drawing too much attention and not taking her gun off the armed drunk in the room.

Her foster father lowered the gun as he stepped towards the women in the doorway.

Stef shouted at him to drop the gun.

He didn't, but he did lower it further as he took another step towards the girls, the barrel now aimed at Callie's knees rather than her head.

He was roughly six feet away now, too close for Callie's comfort.

With the hand not blocking Stef's path, the teen reached behind her, clutching the front of the cop's shirt, her fingers closing tightly around buttons.

Callie realised Stef was in her uniform, that was probably only adding to her foster father's anger.

This was how she protected Jude, she grabbed his shirt to hold him in place, keep him behind her, move him if she had to, but mostly to keep him close, keep him safe.

She usually grabbed the material covering Jude's chest, but because of the height difference, she fisted her hand in the fabric covering Stef's stomach.

She heard the cop suck in a surprised breath at the contact, the only indication that she had felt the teen's hand. Her own hands remained steady on her gun.

Callie could hear both cops yelling, no doubt ordering the drunk to put the gun down and get on his knees, but she wasn't listening.

She was watching him, waiting for a clue as to what he would do next.

The other cop couldn't see her foster father's face, and Callie was blocking most of Stef's view, so when she saw the look of intent in his eyes, she knew she was the only one who could do something about it.

She had only milliseconds to react.

She tightened her hold on Stef's shirt, using all of her strength, aided by adrenaline, she pushed Stef to the opposite doorframe, out of his line of fire.

Stef's side-on stance only made it easier for Callie to displace her. The cop had been standing with her left shoulder pressed against the left side of the doorframe, her hips facing the other side and her upper body twisted to face into the room, her gun in line with Callie's shoulder.

The teen pulled hard of the front of Stef's shirt, slamming the cop into the left side of the doorframe, the momentum slamming Callie herself into the right.

Callie heard the shot as she hit her side of the doorway.

It had taken her the same amount of time to move Stef out of the way as it had for her foster father to raise his gun and fire; 1 second.

The second shot sounded just after the first.

Then everything went quiet.

* * *

**_Okay there it is. The whole thing between Stef and Callie has literally been in my mind forever. I can picture it so clearly but it was so hard to actually put into words and have it make sense. I have read it to death so I don't know if it does, but that interaction is the reason i wrote this whole fic! I know its super unlikely but can we just roll with it please? This is fiction after all. _**

**_Lemme know what you think, depending on the response, the next chapter will be up tomorrow or thursday! ~BC xo_**


	4. Skippy

**_Wow. Just wow. THank you so incredibly much for the response to the last chapter, i cannot tell you how nervous i was to post it! I feel a bit better about his one now after the reviews to the last one so thank you so much! _**

**_This is a really long chapter, i couldn't find a good place to split it and i felt bad about yesterday's cliffhanger so this one is like twice as long as all previous chapters! sorry if it drags a bit! Here goes;_**

* * *

Callie paused only long enough to watch his head hit the floor, the gun landing inches away from his outstretched hand, a bullet in his chest.

She watched as the other cop rushed towards the body on the floor, felt Stef brush past her as she too moved to secure the fallen drunk.

Satisfied that her foster father was no longer a danger, and that Stef was no longer _in_ danger, Callie began to move towards her brother.

Her ears were ringing, Stef had taken the second shot, her gun firing too close to Callie's head, messing up her hearing.

She stumbled as she made her way towards her brother, her foot catching on the base of the lamp, which had remained somewhat intact.

She fell to her knees, only just managing to catch herself with her hands on the carpet.

Pushing herself back to her feet, she half ran, half fell towards the kitchen, towards Jude.

"Baby"

Her voice sounded like she was speaking underwater, muffled and fuzzy to her own ears.

She reached out for Jude as he launched himself at her, his tiny body slamming into hers. She braced herself for the pain that never came.

Huh.

She wrapped her arms around her little brother, holding him tightly to her. She pulled back to look at him, keeping her right arm around his shoulders, she ran her left hand over his face, and then over his arms and chest, checking for any sign of injury, relieved to find none.

She hugged him tight, could feel his arms squeezing tightly around her torso, clinging onto her as if he was afraid she was going to leave him again. It worried her slightly that she wasn't hurting. She had been in agony before, her ribs and arm had been burning and aching and yet now, she felt nothing.

Adrenaline was a wonderful thing.

She could feel Jude shaking in her arms, she could feel the wet patch his tears were making on her shirt as he pressed his face into her shoulder.

"Shh, I'm here, I've got you. You're safe now baby."

She stroked her hand over his head, calming him with just her touch, holding him close like she knew he liked.

As wrapped up in her brother as she was, Callie didn't hear Stef come up behind her, she felt a hand on her shoulder and reacted on pure instinct, the need to protect her brother overriding the knowledge that she was safe now.

She wrenched herself out of Jude's arms, grabbed a fistful of his T-shirt and shoved him behind her body, never once letting go of him.

Jude startled at the sudden separation but his hands came up to cover his sister's, squeezing tightly, making sure she held on.

Stef watched the sibling's carefully, noting how quickly Callie reacted as well as the way she put herself between her brother and the cop, it hurt Stef to see how practiced the motion was, hurt her to know that they'd probably been in this position dozens of times and probably for good reason.

Stef was shocked to see that Jude was in the exact position she herself had been in not moments earlier.

"Don't touch him."

Callie's voice was low and dangerous.

Stef immediately put her hands up, took a step back, she didn't want the teen to feel threatened.

"Woah, hey, no one's gonna hurt him sweets, I just want to make sure you're both alright"

She was using her mom voice, not her cop voice. Trying to soothe the terrified children, not scare them more.

"We're f-f-fine."

Even as she said it, Callie knew that she wasn't.

While her hearing had come back, her aches and pains had not. Her body felt heavy, weighed down. Her skin felt clammy and she was suddenly freezing cold.

Stef looked at Callie more closely. The teen was blinking rapidly, like she was trying to clear her vision, her speech was breathy, like she couldn't get enough air to talk, and her face was pale.

Jude, meanwhile, had remained silent behind his sister, he wasn't afraid anymore. Callie was with him, she would keep him safe, she always did.

He sniffed, let go of Callie's hand so he could wipe at the tears on his face, remembering what his sister always told him;

_Don't let them see you cry._

It was okay to cry when it was just him and Callie, but not with anyone else. Never with anyone else, crying got you hurt more and for them that mainly meant it got _Callie_ hurt more.

So he dried his eyes quickly.

He wiped the side of his face and then returned his hand to Callie's, shocked and scared when he left a bloody handprint on his sister's fist.

"Callie!"

The boy cried out just as Stef was about to speak, his voice panicked and scared, a fact that wasn't missed by either woman.

From her position, Stef could not see Jude at all, which is probably exactly as Callie had intended.

As the girl spun to face her brother, she was hit with a wave of dizziness that sent her crashing sideways into the sink.

She tried to catch herself on the counter, but her hand slipped straight off, leaving a blood smear behind.

Callie looked curiously at the deep cut across her palm that she couldn't feel or explain.

Her other fist had remained clenched tightly in his shirt, Jude gripped her hand with both of his and was attempting to hold her up as she swayed on her feet. Because if Callie went down, they both did.

Despite the pair's best efforts, Callie couldn't stay upright, she fell to her knees before toppling sideways, her hand never releasing her brother's shirt.

Stef lunged forward and caught Callie as she fell to the ground, lowering her gently to the tiled floor, checking the teen for injuries as she did.

The cop couldn't see any on the girl but noticed the blood smeared on the side of Jude's face.

"Sweets what happened to your face?"

She reached out to touch the boy's cheek, but quickly pulled her hand back as he flinched away from her so hard he hit his head on cupboard behind him.

"It's not my bloody, Callie its not my blood!"

The kid wasn't even looking at Stef, his tearful eyes were locked on his sister, his words directed at her too.

Stef ran her eyes over the girl on the floor, this time looking more carefully at the dark patch on the girl's left shoulder. She's assumed it was a tear stain, but as she watched, the wet patch grew darker and wider.

"Shit"

Stef cursed under her breath as she spotted the bullet hole that had been hidden in a fold of Callie's shirt.

"Mike call an ambulance, she's hit!"

Stef shouted out as she moved her hands over the bleeding wound, pushing down hard.

She could hear Mike talking into his phone as he walked towards her.

"What? She seemed fine when she walked in here."

Stef didn't have to turn around to see the disbelieving look on her ex's face.

"Mike I'm telling you she's been shot now will you call the damn ambulance!"

Mike didn't reply, he could see the blood seeping out from between Stef's fingers as she tried to staunch the flow, the wound that hadn't been bleeding a second ago, was now gushing.

Stef heard him call an ambulance as she turned her attention back to the girl on the ground.

"Callie, hon, I need you to listen to me okay, you're going into shock, I need you to try to relax for me, deep breaths sweets"

She managed to keep her voice calm and gentle, tried not to let the myriad of emotions she was feeling bleed into her voice.

It didn't look as though Callie had even heard her, the girl's eyes were unfocused, darting around the room but seeing nothing.

She had released her brother's shirt, her hand now gripped tightly in both of his.

"Callie? Callie you're scaring me!"

It was Jude's voice that broke through the fog surrounding Callie's mind, the pure fear she heard dragging her back to the present.

She was struggling to breath, each short sharp gasp of air felt like a knife in her lungs.

Her body was on fire.

All the pain she hadn't felt before was coming back with a vengeance. Her ribs hurt, her arm hurt, and her shoulder felt like someone was stabbing her with a red hot branding iron.

She'd felt that before.

Stef pushed down harder on the teen's shoulder, silently berating herself.

How had she missed this? How had the girl even gotten all the way over here without anyone noticing she had been _shot_?

She looked down at the shirt Callie was wearing. It was dark, black, and very baggy on the teen's slight frame.

The material probably wasn't even touching the wound at all until the girl collapsed, and even now that it was, its dark colour disguised the growing bloodstain very well.

"Jude... Jude!"

The girl was tugging on her brother's hand, trying to sit up despite the excruciating pain Stef knew she had to be in.

"Honey just lay down okay, I need you to lie still so I can keep pressure on this"

Stef was trying to push Callie back to the ground but the teen was having none of it.

She fought against Stef until the pain in her shoulder made her want to throw up.

She gave up fighting the cop and lay back on the ground, her breathing shallow and rasping, a sheen of sweat on her forehead.

"Jude, Brandon. Brandon is - is Sskippy."

Stef could see how much it was costing Callie to speak, could feel the way the girl's body tensed up as she fought to push the words out.

Words the cop didn't understand, a codeword that meant something to the siblings but no one else.

She looked down at her hands, worried by the amount of blood that was starting to seep out between her fingers. She looked at the girl's face and was surprised when she found Callie looking at her, eyes hard as she tried to hide the pain she was in.

"He promised. Brandon. He promised me."

She stopped, the effort of talking having completely exhausted her.

Stef didn't know what her son had promised the girl, but she would bet that it had something to do with her brother, something to do with their coded conversation.

"B, I need you to come here for a second."

She shouted over her shoulder, her hands never easing up pressure over Callie's shoulder.

It was only a few seconds later that she heard footsteps behind her.

"Oh my god. What happened?"

Brandon was understandably surprised. He had seen Callie walk into the kitchen, same as everyone else. She hadn't seemed hurt and yet here she was, lying in a rapidly growing pool of her own blood.

"Stef! What's going on?"

Lena had been with Brandon while he gave his statement to the officers that arrived on scene.

They'd been waiting by the car for Stef and Callie to come out and when Stef had called Brandon, Lena had followed him in.

Stef ignored both questions, looking Jude in the eye for the first time.

"Jude, that's my son Brandon, and thats his other mom, Lena. I need you to go with them okay? I'm gonna look after Callie sweets, I'll keep her safe alright? I promise."

The boy blinked at her, tears falling from his eyes. Then he glanced back down at his sister, waiting for her to tell him what to do.

Callie was taking very shallow breaths, speaking only a few words on each exhale.

"Buddy. Skippy. Brandon-is-skippy. Its-okay. Go-with-him. I'll-see-you-soon. I-promise."

She closed her eyes as the pain threatened to overwhelmed her, held her breath for a moment as she rode it out.

"Don't-let-them-see-you-cry."

Her voice was barely above a whisper, her lips were blue and her face pale.

Jude sniffed and wiped his face. He trusted Callie. She always did what was best for him.

Brandon was Skippy.

It was a code name the two had come up with in their second foster home, the first house where they were beaten.

Jude had broken a glass and their foster father had smacked him across the face. The siblings had never been beaten in a foster home, they hadn't seen it coming.

Callie had held Jude that night as he cried himself to sleep. She told him a story about Leo the starfish, Eddie the seahorse and Skippy, the turtle on his backpack.

In the story, Eddie the seahorse had been picking on Leo the starfish, and Leo was sad because Eddie had hurt him. Leo told his friend Skippy about it and the next time Eddie had tried to hurt Leo, Skippy had protected him.

Jude had said he wished Skippy would protect him too.

Callie had told him;

_"You've got me Jude, I'll be your Skippy, I'll protect you."_

It had been their codeword ever since. If someone was Skippy, they were safe. If someone was Eddie, they weren't.

"You'll come and get me?"

Stef could hear the tears in the boy's voice.

Jude knew the answer but he needed to hear it from Callie.

"Always baby"

Two simple words, but Stef could see Callie had to fight for them, the cop's heart broke at hearing the tearful exchange.

Jude squeezed Callie's hand tight, whispered a quick 'i love you' and then walked over to Brandon and Lena, trying his best not to let his tears fall, trying to be strong like his sister.

"B, she said you promised her something?"

Stef couldn't see her son's face, but she heard him take a deep breath.

When he spoke, Stef knew the words weren't for her.

"Yeah. I promised."

He didn't regret it one bit.

"Okay, come on sweetie let's go."

Lena reached out to put her arm around Jude's shoulders, wanting to get the kids out of there, away from the body under the white sheet in the middle of the lounge room.

Her voice was gentle and kind but Jude shied away from her touch. He walked around her and stopped when he reached Brandon's side, the teenage boy between himself and Lena.

Callie had said Brandon was Skippy, but she hadn't said anything about Lena.

Lena put her arm around Brandon, who looked extremely confused, and started walking outside, Brandon following her lead and Jude following his.

As their footsteps faded, Stef felt Callie's body tense, her breathing became more laboured and she scrunched her eyes closed in pain.

Stef wanted to cry as she realised the teen had been holding herself together for Jude, not wanting him to see just how much pain she was in. Was there anything this girl wouldn't do for her brother?

"Shhh honey, the ambulance will be here any second now."

Stef tried to talk to Callie, but the teen was fading fast.

"Callie I need you to stay with me okay? Come on, thats it, keep your eyes open for me baby."

The term of endearment startled them both. No one had called Callie 'baby' in a long time, not like that, not like they actually cared about her.

Stef was equally as surprised. She didn't call anyone baby but her actual babies. She used other words like sweets, sweetheart, honey, and variations of the same, but never baby.

This girl was something else entirely. Stef had never felt so connected to someone she hardly knew, but this kid was getting under her skin. She was too familiar and it made Stef's heart ache to see the teen suffering so badly, looking like she was all alone.

She could hear Lena leading the paramedics through the house. She looked down at Callie and could see the teen was fighting hard to stay awake.

"You're not alone Callie, I'm right here sweet girl, you won't be alone."

She didn't know if the teen had heard her, but she didn't get a chance to find out as Lena arrived and she had to move to let the paramedics take over.

As much as she wanted to stay by Callie's side, she knew she had to let the professionals do their thing.

She walked over to stand with Lena by the front door, both of them watching as the paramedics cut Callie's shirt off and starting working on her shoulder.

"How's she doing?"

Lena didn't take her eyes off the teen as she addressed her lover.

"She has to be in agony Lena but she won't let anybody see that."

Stef shook her head as she watched an IV being inserted into Callie's arm.

"How's Jude? It had to be scary seeing his sister like this."

She looked away from the scene in the kitchen, looked down at her hands still covered in the girl's blood.

"He won't even look at me, its like he's afraid of me! I thought he would be afraid of men you know? But he hasn't left Brandon's side, its just me he has a problem with."

Stef looked up when she heard the tears in Lena's voice. The thought of a child being afraid of her was tearing the brunette apart.

"Oh Love, its not you, its something Callie said to him. I think Brandon promised Callie that he'd watch out for Jude or something, and Callie told Jude that B was Skippy. I don't know what it means but I think its some sort of codeword. He doesn't trust anyone but his sister Love, and my guess is, his sister told him to trust B, so we just have to let him do that until he realises he's safe with us."

Lena nodded her head but didn't respond, her mind absorbing everything the blonde had said.

Stef broke the silence between them.

"I know Callie and I didn't get off to a great start, but Lena you should have seen her in there! She wouldn't even let me in the room! I thought she didn't trust me or didn't want me to get involved, hell I thought for a moment she was protecting the son of a bitch that was pointing the gun at her! But she wasn't Lena, she was protecting _me_! She held me behind her the same way she held Jude when she thought he was in danger!"

Lena was startled, Stef never swore unless it was serious and hearing what Callie had done for her partner made Lena's chest tight.

"She took that bullet for me Babe. She shoved me out of the way and put herself in my place and got shot. If I'd have been standing there it would have hit me straight in the chest! That girl protected me and for the life of me I can't work out why!"

Her voice was quiet, but Stef was angry now, angry at the drunk man who shot a kid, angry at the system for putting two children in such a horrible home, angry at the world that made a 16 year old girl think she was a human shield, and angry at herself for letting the girl be just that.

Lena felt like she's been punched in the stomach. She could have lost Stef tonight. She _would _ have lost her if it hadn't been for Callie.

_"She was protecting me"_

Lena couldn't understand it either. She didn't think Callie liked Stef all that much. It didn't make any sense.

She wrapped her arm around her partner's waist, pressing a kiss to the blonde hair at her temple, wishing she knew what to say to make Stef feel better, wishing she knew how to make _herself_ feel better.

This girl.

"Are you gonna ride with her?"

The paramedics had loaded Callie onto the gurney and were waiting on Stef.

"Yeah. You alright for Mike to drive you home?"

Her question was directed at Lena, but her eyes were fixed on Callie, she looked so small and fragile on the gurney.

"Yeah of course. And I talked to Bill, he's gonna make arrangements to come pick up Jude tomorrow, I said I'd call him when we knew more about Callie."

Lena was also looking at Callie, her voice wavering slightly as she spoke.

"No. No thats not gonna happen, we are not sending these kids back into that system right now. Not yet. "

Stef shook her head, turning to face Lena.

The brunette didn't argue, didn't have time to say anything as the paramedics suddenly started wheeling Callie out of the house, shouting orders to each other as the monitors the young girl was attached to started beeping loudly.

"Okay, alright. Not yet. Go babe, call me as soon as you know anything."

Lena leant in and pressed a quick kiss to Stef's lips, silently grateful that Stef wanted to keep the siblings, at least for the time being.

Stef shot her partner a pained smile as she jogged after the paramedics, hopping into the ambulance as they got Callie in.

She held the teen's hand, squeezed it gently as repeated her earlier words.

"I'm right here sweet girl. You are not alone anymore."

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**_Phew okay, you made it. So just bear in mind that this is completely fiction and i am not a doctor nor do i know anything about gunshot wounds. Just go with it okay? And please please please let me know what you think! Next chapter is all Stef and Callie and will be up tomorrow or Friday! _**

**_Review! even if it is just one word, i will take it and i will love you forever :) 3 ~BC xo_**


	5. Why'd you do it?

_**Alright so here is the next chapter! Its mostly Stef but kind of Stef/Callie i suppose? i dono, just read it yeah? And thank you all so much for the reviews, i love waking up in the morning and getting to reply to them all! Its literally the best part of my day :) And thank you as well to all the guests i cant reply to; your reviews are very much appreciated! :) **_

* * *

The ride to the hospital was a tense one.

The paramedics had done everything they could for Callie on-scene.

She had a drip running into her right arm and an oxygen mask covering her nose and mouth.

They'd had to cut off the teen's shirt in order to gain access to the hole in her shoulder, which was now tightly bandaged to prevent further blood loss.

Stef could already see the blood soaking through the gauze and silently urged the driver to go faster.

Callie had lost consciousness after Stef had gotten in the ambulance and hadn't regained it in the seven and a half minutes they'd been driving.

She was counting the seconds.

The cop hated being helpless, hated that there was nothing she could do but hold the teen's hand and pray she didn't bleed out before they got to the hospital.

She closed her eyes and took a breath, opened her eyes and looked down at Callie's hand, which she was gently cradling.

The red on Stef's hands had long since dried and begun to flake off. She tried to ignore it and focus on Callie's breathing, on the constant beep of the heart monitor that told her the girl was still alive, still fighting.

She tried not to think about the fact that the child's blood was on her hands, both figuratively and literally.

She studied the girl lying in front of her, tried to understand what could possibly have made her feel like she had to stand in front of a _cop_ rather than step aside and let Stef do her _job._

Why had this girl felt the need to act like a human shield?

Stef didn't know a thing about Callie aside from the fact that she'd been in Chula Vista, and she couldn't imagine the teen felt the need to protect anyone in there.

And she had a brother.

That poor little boy.

Stef had seen him through the window before she tried to enter the house, had seen him standing there, frozen in fear, hands clamped tightly over his ears and body shaking as his sister was held at gunpoint.

She didn't think she had ever seen a child look so absolutely terrified and that was saying something in her line of work.

But as soon as Callie had wrapped her arms around him, the fear had vanished completely, he had looked so completely safe and at peace in his sister's arms and it tore Stef apart inside.

That boy looked at Callie like she was his saviour, like he knew she would never let anything happen to him and Stef hated it, because for him to know that with such absolute certainty, Callie had to have proved it to him beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Stef took advantage of Callie's unconsciousness and ran her eyes over the teen's exposed torso.

The sheer number of scars on the girl's body took Stef's breath away.

The oldest scars appeared to be the ones littering the teen's stomach, they looked like knife wounds, each one was about the length of Stef's ring finger and judging by the scar tissue, they had been deep.

Stef guessed they had healed roughly three or four years ago.

She felt sick.

Callie couldn't have been more than twelve or thirteen when she received those cuts. She could only imagine how much they would have hurt, she could picture a younger Callie biting her lip and holding back her cries of pain as some sadistic foster parent sliced her again and again for probably no reason at all.

The thought was making Stef's blood boil, she wanted to hunt down and hurt every single person that had ever laid a hand on her foster daughter.

She didn't even know her, but already Stef found herself caring about the sweet, protective girl behind the brave face and tough exterior, the girl who looked like she had lived through the worst kind of hell.

Stef wondered what Callie and Jude had been through, what kind of awful homes they'd been in that left kind of marks on the teen, what kind of marks they'd left that weren't visible on the outside.

She wondered if Jude bore similar reminders of the kids' tragic past.

Remembering how protective Callie had been over Jude though, she was almost certain that they would find little to no scarring on the boy's body, just as she was certain that many of the scars she could see on Callie were probably received as the girl protected her brother.

Callie had put her brother first even when she had been _shot, _the kind of behaviour Stef had only ever seen mother's exhibit towards their children.

As a mother herself, she knew she would die before she let someone lay a hand on her babies and she had an awful feeling Callie was exactly the same about her baby brother.

That wasn't a burden for a sixteen year old girl to bear. She shouldn't have to protect Jude; someone should have protected them both and it made Stef angry that so far no one had.

She was angry that they even needed protecting in the first place.

Her anger only intensified as her eyes wandered further up the teen's torso, landing on her ribcage.

There were two deep purple bruises covering the right side of her rib cage, the area around the bruises looked tender and swollen, the bruising was fresh, probably only a day old. She probably got them around the same time as her busted lip; her beating in Juvie.

Stef was nearly sick when she looked at the mottled bruising that covered the left side of the teen's ribcage. There were old bruises, probably from a week or so earlier, but they were barely visible under the more extensive bruising that was likely also from the previous day.

Stef remembered when her old partner Vasquez had been shot the year before. His vest had caught the bullet but the impact broke three of his ribs, he had been out for six weeks, the pain in his side making him unable to even walk for the first couple of days.

His ribs had looked exactly as Callie's looked now.

Stef had to take a deep breath, fight against the bile rising up her throat.

She had elbowed the girl in the ribs. The same ribs that she could now see were probably broken.

Callie had to have been in excruciating agony and yet she had stood strong against Stef's attempts to force her way through.

Stef let go of Callie's hand with one of her own, moving to brush a strand of hair out of the teen's face.

"Why'd you do it hon? Why'd you hold me back?"

She couldn't deny that the gesture had been protective. Not after she had seen Callie handle Jude the exact same way.

She moved her hand to the fabric covering her stomach, her fingers smoothing the creases the teen had made in her uniform as she had practically thrown Stef aside.

She must have been in so much pain and yet she had pushed Stef, slammed herself into the doorway and then taken a bullet for the cop.

Somehow the teen had seen the shot coming, and she had put herself in its path, like a goddamn _shield_.

Stef hadn't been very receptive to having the girl in their house, and after Callie's comment about Brandon being the 'real son' she had been even less thrilled about having her around their kids.

She hadn't shown the girl any love whatsoever and yet Callie had undoubtedly saved her life.

The knowledge struck Stef to the core; Callie had risked her own life for Stef's. She had been willing to die to save Stef.

The realisation broke the cop's heart all over again.

And then it made her mad.

She could feel the fury running through her veins.

It was stupid and reckless. _She_ was the cop, Protect and Serve, that was her _job_.

_She _was the protecter. Her. Not some teen who clearly had absolutely no self-worth!

She was suddenly so angry at the girl in front of her that she didn't know what to do with herself.

_What the hell was she thinking!? She could have been killed!_

Stef took a couple of deep breaths, tried to tamp down the anger.

She couldn't help but remember the last time she'd felt like this.

When Brandon was about seven, she had taken him to the mall to buy him some new shoes for school. The stores were packed with mom's and kids doing last minute shopping and it had been absolute chaos.

She had turned around for just a second to get a different sized shoe, and when she'd looked back, Brandon was gone.

She looked for him for twenty minutes before she finally found him in the toy section of the store.

It had been the absolute worst twenty minutes of her life and when she'd finally found him she had been so relieved, but she didn't know if she wanted to hug him or strangle him for scaring her so badly.

That was exactly how she felt now.

She was so mad at how stupid Callie had been, and she was furious that the girl was now fighting for her life.

But she was also so scared to death that she was going to lose the teen before she even got a chance to know her, before she got a chance to really love her.

Stef couldn't explain how, but sometime in the last half hour Callie had wormed her way into the cop's heart and the blonde couldn't bear to see the girl so battered and bruised.

She looked down at her feet, trying to look anywhere but at the teen in front of her. She didn't want to see any more. She didn't want to look at the multitude of scars that covered the girls chest and neck because each one made her want to cry. Or scream. Maybe both.

She wanted to cry for this girl who clearly felt she was worth nothing more than a shield for the people around her. She wanted to cry for the pain Callie must have been through as she protected herself and her baby brother._  
_

She just wanted to cry for the girl who probably never cried for herself.

But at the same time, she wanted to scream at how the foster system had failed the siblings so completely, wanted to scream at the families that were supposed to love, protect and nurture the two and had beaten and hurt them instead. She wanted to scream at all the people who had drilled it into the beautiful brown eyed girl that she was disposable and worthless, that she was nothing.

Stef's head was spinning as her thoughts ran into each other and raced round and round her mind, everything on a loop like a broken record, her brain a mess of thoughts and feelings, all her emotions tangled up together.

She was pulled out of the rabbit hole as she felt Callie's hand squeeze her own.

The teen's eyes were open and for the first time, Stef could see the pain and fear in them.

"Sweets I'm here. You're safe Callie, I'm gonna keep you safe."

She didn't know if the girl believed her, but Stef had to try, she couldn't let the girl feel alone, not now, not ever.

The ambulance slowed as they pulled up in front of the hospital.

Stef knew she would have to let go of Callie's hand while they took care of her but she didn't want to, didn't think she could bear to be separated from Callie when she looked so vulnerable and broken.

"I'll be right here waiting for you okay? I'm not going anywhere Callie, I'll be waiting for you sweets, you won't be alone anymore"

She saw a lone tear make its way down the broken girl's face and into her hair. Callie was terrified and in so much pain that she just couldn't it together anymore, couldn't prevent that one tear from slipping out no matter how hard she tried to fight it.

_Don't let them see you cry._

She was breaking her own rule, but for some reason it felt okay to cry in front of Stef, it felt okay to be vulnerable in front of the pretty, blonde cop and that scared the crap out of Callie. She couldn't afford to let her guard down, not when she was in too weak a state to protect herself.

Stef could feel tears on her own cheeks as she placed a kiss to the girl's knuckle before releasing Callie's hand and moving out of the way, allowing the paramedics to unload the gurney from the ambulance and giving the doctors and nurses space as they rushed out to meet them.

Stef jumped to the ground and followed behind them, wiping her face dry as she jogged to keep up.

She owed the girl her life, it was because of her that Stef would get to go home to her family, and the least she could do was give Callie a _home_ to come home to.

As Callie was wheeled into the ER, through doors that even Stef's badge couldn't get her through, Stef silently promised that when Callie came out, she would have a whole family waiting here for her and she would finally get to feel loved and safe.

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**_And there. So that is a look at what Stef is thinking. Next chapter will be a look at how things are going back at the Fosters and how Jude and Lena are getting along! And i have nothing beyond that so if there is something you want to see then lemme know, otherwise be prepared to just follow my ramblings and see where they lead :) _**

**_Please leave a review, i love them, i live for them, they keep me writing! next chapter will be up tomorrow or the next day! :) ~BC xo_**


	6. Why'd she have to leave him?

As Stef and Callie were arriving at the hospital, Lena, Brandon and Jude were arriving home.

After bidding Mike goodnight, Lena turned and followed the boys up the path to the front door.

Mariana and Jesus were waiting for them on the front steps and stood when they heard footsteps approaching.

"Where's Callie?"

Jesus was the first to speak, his face scrunched in confusion as he caught sight of the young boy practically glued to Brandon's side.

"And who's this?"

Mariana looked at her mama with questioning eyes, her hand motioning to Jude.

Lena sighed and ran a hand through her hair as she moved to open the door.

"Guys, this is Callie's brother Jude, he's going to be staying with us for a while."

She opened the door and walked inside, waiting for the kids to follow her before shutting and locking it behind them and making introductions.

"Jude, these are the twins, Jesus and Mariana, Stef and I adopted them when they were little."

Jude glanced at the twins, forcing a small smile to his face before looking back down at his feet.

Lena turned back to her youngest kids.

"Callie is in the hospital. I don't want you guys to worry, she's gonna be just fine and mom's there with her now."

Lena watched the twins as they absorbed the information. Jesus looked surprised, but Mariana looked distracted, like she hadn't really heard what Lena had said.

"Well what happened to her?"

Jesus was always curious. He remembered his mother's words about Callie having a rough time lately and wondered if it was anything to do with that.

"She uh... She got hurt, by her foster father, and they just need to make sure she's alright."

Lena knew that was stretching the truth but she didn't want to tell them that Callie had been shot, didn't want to really acknowledge the fact herself, Stef's words from earlier still ringing in her ears

_She shoved me out of the way and put herself in my place and got shot. If I'd have been standing there it would have hit me straight in the chest!_

Callie had saved Stef's life and Lena didn't know what it meant, why a teenager would do something so selfless for someone she barely knew.

The twins both nodded, accepting Lena's explanation in silence. They said goodnight and then went up to their respective rooms, both lost in quiet contemplation.

Lena told them goodnight but she too was lost in her own mind. She couldn't stop picturing the teen lying on the ground as the paramedics worked on her, the dark crimson pool around her making her skin look so pale and lifeless.

Lena couldn't help but wonder what could have happened if Callie hadn't pushed Stef out of the way, it could have been Stef lying in a pool of her own blood, a bullet in her chest.

The thought made Lena sick for so many reasons. Firstly because Stef was the love of her life, the person who kept her sane though all the chaos that raising three teens involved. Imagining Stef hurt made her heart race and her palms sweat. Imagining Stef gone was something she just couldn't do.

That had Lena feeling worse, because on some level she was incredibly grateful that Callie had done what she did and that made her feel awful because it was almost like she was glad a child was lying in a hospital in pain instead of her partner.

She shook her head, as if she could shake the thoughts right out of her mind.

She focused her attention back on Brandon and Jude.

She knew that her and Stef would have to have a very serious talk with Brandon, but it would have to wait until the morning when the blonde got home.

Though Lena doubted she would be home by morning, she'd seen the way her partner had looked at Callie, she really cared about the girl and Lena knew she had to be wracked with guilt over the teen's current state.

All Lena could do for Callie now was make sure that her brother was well looked after, a task that was going to be very difficult as the boy refused to come anywhere near her.

"Hey sweetie, do you want anything to eat?"

Lena crouched in front of Jude, hoping to seem less threatening down on his level.

He shrank back against Brandon, shaking his head and looking anywhere but at Lena.

"No thank you."

His response was whispered very quietly and Lena had to strain to even here it.

Lena sighed and stood up, looking over at Brandon as she remembered what Stef had said about him promising Callie something.

She gave her son a meaningful look and he nodded.

"Well I'm starving so I'm gonna make a sandwich, you sure you don't want one?"

Brandon looked down at Jude hoping the younger boy would accept the offer if it came from him but the Jude didn't even look up, just shook his head.

"When can I see Callie?"

His voice was shaky, like he was holding back tears and all Lena wanted to do was wrap him up in her arms and hold him tight, take away all the hurt.

"Probably not till tomorrow honey, but she is safe okay? Stef is with her at the hospital and she's gonna make sure the doctors take really good care of her."

When Jude still didn't raise his eyes from the floor, Lena spoke again.

"You're safe too Jude. No one is gonna hurt you as long as you're here okay? I promise."

To this the boy nodded, lifting his eyes to look at Lena and then Brandon.

Callie could always tell when people were lying. She said you could see it in their eyes if they were telling the truth.

Jude never understood what she had meant, he wasn't as smart as Callie and he didn't know how to tell.

In Lena's eyes though, he saw only concern and maybe pity. He thought she had kind eyes but he wasn't sure.

She didn't look like she was lying, and Brandon didn't look afraid but Jude had learned the hard way that people were never what they seemed.

"Where do I sleep? I'm kind of tired."

His voice was above a whisper, but still very quiet.

Lena had to fight back a sad smile, Callie had said those exact words only yesterday and while the boy had been more polite, it was clear he had learned from his sister.

She shared a look with Brandon, neither of them sure if the boy would want to be alone or not.

It was Brandon who replied, taking his cues from his mama.

"Well.. You could sleep in the den on the couch, thats where Callie slept last night. Or we could set you up on a blow up mattress in my room? It could be fun, like a sleepover."

He'd promised Callie he'd make sure Jude was okay, and he was determined to keep that promise and make the boy as happy as he could.

Lena smiled at her son's offer, he could tell that Jude wanted to stay close to him and he was willing to do anything to make sure the younger boy felt safe.

Jude remained quiet as he thought about his options. Callie had said Brandon was safe, but he didn't know about the other kids in the house and while Lena seemed really nice, he had seen the bruises on his sister's face.

Callie was a really good fighter, she had been in lots of fights with other foster kids, especially when they were in a home where food was scarce. She'd had to learn how to fight so that she could defend them both against the bigger kids in the homes, she was good at it, as much as Jude hated to admit it.

Jude knew that she couldn't have gotten those bruises from Brandon because she'd said he was Skippy. He doubted one of the twins had hurt her because neither of them had bruises and Callie would have definitely hit them back.

Callie never hit foster parents back, not unless they went after him. Hitting a foster parent was never a good idea, it only got her in more trouble, it made them hurt her more. If Stef or Lena had hit Callie, she wouldn't have hit back, she knew better.

It had to have been Lena who hurt her. Jude had seen Callie protect Stef. He didn't know why, but he could tell thats what his sister was doing. She had grabbed Stef's shirt just like she always did his. She wouldn't have kept Stef safe if Stef had hurt her so it must have been Lena who bruised her face and split her lip.

Thinking about what Callie did was making him mad. Why'd she have to go and protect the blonde cop? Why'd she have to leave him?

Jude hated the police. Callie had called them once when their foster father had hit Jude and they had come and they hadn't saved her. They'd just left and Jude had to watch while He hurt Callie again and again, punished her for trying to get Him in trouble.

The next time the police had come, they'd taken Callie away, they'd put her in jail and left Jude all on his own in that house.

Jude hated the police, and he hated Callie for saving a cop when the cops had never saved her.

No. He didn't hate Callie. He wanted her back, wanted her here to keep him safe.

He was scared and he just wanted his sister.

He looked up when he realised Brandon was still waiting for a response.

"Could I sleep in your room?"

His voice was still quiet and he seemed to shrink even further into himself at the request, asking for things was never a good idea, but Brandon had offered so he thought it would be okay.

"Yeah of course! You wait there on the couch and I'll go set up the mattress.

Jude's eyes startled up to Brandon's, a look of pure panic on his face at the thought of the older boy leaving him alone.

The reason he wanted to sleep in Brandon's room was so that he wouldn't have to be alone! So that he could be safe away from Lena.

Lena seemed to sense the boy's panic and jumped in.

"B how about you guys go watch some TV and I'll set up the bed's okay?"

Brandon nodded his head at the suggestion and moved through to the TV room, Jude close behind him.

The two sat down on the couch and Jude's eyes immediately went to the blue duffel bag on the coffee table.

Callie's bag.

He reached into it and pulled out one of her shirts, pressing it to his face as he breathed in her scent.

It made him feel loved, protected, safe. Callie always made him feel safe, no matter what hell hole of a home they were in.

He curled up in the corner of the couch, Callie's shirt gripped tightly in his fist as Brandon flipped through channels on the TV.

By the time Lena came down to call the boys up to bed, Jude had fallen asleep on the couch, Callie's shirt clutched tightly to his chest.

Lena smiled sadly at the sight, her heart breaking for the poor boy. All he had in the world was his sister and he was completely lost without her.

She walked over to him quietly and used one of the blankets they kept on the back of the couch to cover the boy's tiny frame.

She refrained from touching him, though she wanted nothing more than to run her hand through his hair and kiss him on the head.

She saw Brandon wrapping himself in a blanket too and knew he intended to stay down here with Jude. She walked over to him and _did_ run her hand through his hair and kiss his head, whispering a quiet thank you to him.

She was still incredibly mad about what he had done, the risk he had taken going with Callie. But she loved that boy and she knew his heart was in the right place.

She settled into the other chair in the living room, determined to keep an eye on Jude as she waited for Stef to call.

She ran her eyes over the sleeping boy on the couch. She could feel herself falling in love with him and she had never even touched him. There was just something about the broken look in his eyes that made Lena want to hold him and love him, want to show him that the world was so much better than the horrible place he'd come to know it as.

She would talk to Stef about it. Her partner was right, they were not putting these kids back into the system, not when it had failed them so spectacularly.

They were going to stay right here with them where Lena knew they would be safe for as long as possible.

She remembered Stef's words from the previous night.

_Honey we can't save them all..._

Lena knew they couldn't save them all.

But they could save these two and that was good enough for her.


	7. I want my sibling

**_Alright first of all, THIS STORY HAS OVER 100 REVIEWS! I'm not above admitting i absolutely squealed like a little kid whose birthday and Christmas all came at once! THank you to each and every reviewer, it really made my day! _**

**_That being said, this chapter absolutely killed me. I don't love it and it is ridiculously long (really sorry about that) but if i'd split it then it would have been two chapters that i didn't love and it would have just prolonged the wait. Can't really put my finger on what bothers me about it so if you work it out let me know.. _**

* * *

Lena startled awake, her heart racing and her blood humming.

She couldn't remember her dream exactly, but it had been a warped version of the night's events, a version in which all of her kids were there in the house with the gun toting drunk. It hadn't ended well.

She took a deep breath and let it out. It was just a dream.

As her eyes adjusted to the dark and her heart rate returned to normal, she looked around the room, her eyes falling first on Brandon, still asleep in the chair across from her, and then on the empty couch where Jude had fallen asleep hours before.

Lena got up and moved over to the couch, she touched her hand to the cushion Jude had been curled up on and was relieved to find it still warm; he couldn't have been up long.

She bent down to pick up the shirt of Callie's that the boy had clutched like a lifeline, her heart plummeting when she saw patches of red on the otherwise white fabric.

She had seen enough blood tonight to last her a lifetime.

Still holding the shirt, she pulled her phone out of her pocket, unlocking it and quickly scrolling through her apps to find the flashlight, turning it on immediately.

She shone the light down the length of the couch and was relieved to find no more signs of blood.

Maybe he just had a blood nose. Jesus had plenty of them when he first started living with the Fosters, it had scared the crap out of the women at first, but they'd learned not to make a big deal out of it after they'd watched Mariana clean her twin up without a fuss.

Lena prayed that it was just a blood nose, but as she caught sight of the blood on the corner of the coffee table, she realised it probably wasn't.

She quietly but quickly moved through the lounge to the kitchen, listening carefully for any signs of Jude. When none could be heard, she made her way to the bathroom, letting out the breath she was holding as she heard movement coming from inside.

The bathroom door was cracked open, and the light was on inside so Lena had a clear of the boy in the room.

What she saw brought tears to her eyes.

Jude looked tiny and so fragile in the harsh white light.

He had a cut about the size of Lena's pinky just above his left eyebrow that was bleeding profusely, a river of red running down the side of his pale face.

He was sitting on the floor, frantically scrubbing at his shirt with a handful of what looked like wet toilet paper, Lena could hear his quiet sobs from where she stood.

She couldn't bear to watch him struggle anymore, she could see the blood running into his eye and it was only making him cry harder, his tiny frame shaking as he tried not to make a sound.

She softly knocked on the door, wanting to get his attention but not scare him.

Jude's head shot up at the sound, his eyes filling with fear as tears splashed down his cheeks.

He hurriedly moved away from Lena, his eyes darting around looking for an escape as he shuffled himself backwards as fast as he could go.

He stopped when his back hit the bathtub, his eyes landing on the woman in the doorway, panic written all over his face.

"I'm sorry I'm really sorry! It was an accident!"

His voice was shaking and absolutely terrified and Lena could do nothing but stand there and stare at the child cowering away from her.

He was afraid of her, _deathly _afraid of her and that hurt her so deeply she just didn't know what to do. She would never harm a child, but _this_ child didn't seem to understand that and it was killing her!

She sank to her knees in the doorway, not daring to move any further into the room just yet.

"Jude? Honey? Look at me please."

Her tone was kind and gentle but Jude could hear something else as well.

He lifted his head from his knees, his body in a tight ball, and looked at Lena, confused by the tears he could see in her eyes.

"Jude I'm not mad, but are you okay? What happened?"

She could clearly see the boy was anything but okay, but she had to start somewhere, she had to get him talking if she wanted him to let her in.

Jude remained quiet, silently watching her from his spot on the floor.

"Its okay Jude, I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to help, I want to make sure you're alright. Is it okay if I take a look at your head? I'll be gentle I promise."

Lena watched as Jude silently battled himself, clearly torn between wanting her to help, and not trusting her to.

He just wished Callie were there, she always took care of him. And she would be able to tell if Lena meant what she was saying, or if she just wanted to hurt him.

His head was really sore though, and he didn't know where anything in this house was, he knew he was going to need someone to help him.

He studied Lena carefully, she looked right back at him, her eyes so soft and kind and as he watched, he saw two tears make their way down her cheeks.

"Why are you crying?"

His voice was rough from his own tears but Lena was just glad he had finally spoken to her.

"Because I don't like seeing you hurt. When one of my kids are sad it makes me sad."

The words had slipped out so easily and Lena couldn't take them back, she didn't want to take them back.

He _was_ her kid. Her foster kid anyway.

Jude just looked shocked, but he recovered quickly, wiping his emotions clean off his face so fast that Lena was stunned, how had a twelve year old learned how to hide his emotions so well?

Better yet; _why _had he learned to hide them so well?

There was so much she didn't know about these kids, and she hated it.

She didn't shift under Jude's stare and was relieved when she saw the boy relax a little bit against the tub, evidently satisfied with whatever he saw in her eyes.

"You can come in."

His voice was a tiny whisper but Lena did as he said, standing slowly and walking over to crouch in front of him.

"Can you tell me what happened? You don't have to if you don't feel comfortable"

She didn't want to pressure him into anything, didn't want to break the tenuous trust they had going.

She turned to the cupboards on her left and began searching through them for the antiseptic wipes she knew they had.

"I had a bad dream, I fell off the couch and hit my head on the table."

His voice was quiet and he didn't look up at Lena as he spoke, his head down as if he expected to get in trouble.

Lena turned back to him, the wipes in her hand.

"Oh sweetie I'm sorry, do you wanna tell me what it was about?."

Her voice was just as quiet, and Jude was surprised at how she _actually_ sounded sorry; she wasn't just saying it.

He didn't know if he could trust her. She hadn't hurt him yet, but she still might, so he shook his head in answer to her question, trying to ignore how dizzy it made him feel.

"I'm really sorry Jude but this is going to sting a little bit okay? I just need to make sure I clean the cut so it doesn't get infected."

Jude was surprised again as Lena seemed to ask his permission to touch him. No one had ever asked him before. He nodded his head and she started cleaning up his head.

He didn't even flinch. Didn't move or wince or suck in a pained breath. Nothing.

Lena almost wished he'd cried or cringed or something, anything but the quiet acceptance she could see on his face, the look in his eyes that told her this was nothing new to him, nothing he hadn't had done numerous times before.

She could see the bruise already forming above his eyebrow, and the cut itself was going to need stitches, or at least butterfly strips, to close it.

She sighed as she stood and through the bloodied wipes in the toilet. Looking back down to Jude as he too stood.

The gash was starting to bleed again and she was worried about the amount of blood he was losing. She didn't know when he'd last eaten or drank anything and that added to a head injury made her nervous.

"Buddy I think we're gonna have to take a trip to the hospital, I just want them to check you over okay? Make sure you didn't do any serious damage to your head."

Jude just nodded, accepting the hand towel she gave him to press against his head.

"Will Callie be there?"

He tried to keep the hope out of his voice, afraid that if Lena knew how much he wanted to see Callie she would keep him away from her.

It had happened once before.

"I'm not sure hon, we can call Stef on the way to the hospital and see how she's doing okay?"

She watched as the boy's shoulders slumped in relief and she knew she'd said the right thing.

"Okay so let's get going yeah? I just need to talk to Brandon first and then we can leave."

Lena hesitantly put her arm around Jude's shoulders, she felt him stiffen but he didn't pull away. Baby steps.

Ten minutes later they were in the car, Lena had woken Brandon and told him where they were going. He'd been reluctant to stay behind; he'd promised Callie he would watch out for Jude after all, but he agreed to stay and wait for the twins to wake up, promising Jude he would be at the hospital soon.

Lena made sure Jude was buckled in and started the car. She'd been trying to remain calm, but Jude was looking very pale and she was starting to worry.

They had just pulled out onto the deserted road when her phone began to ring.

She glanced at the clock on the dashboard, surprised to see it was already nearing 5am. She answered the call and Stef's strained voice came through the car's speakers.

"Lena? Lena is Jude there?"

* * *

Time was standing still for Stef at the hospital.

She glanced at the clock and growled when she realised only two minutes had passed since she'd last checked it.

3:29am.

She was wide awake, the numerous cups of coffee she'd consumed were buzzing through her system.

She needed to know how Callie was. She had been waiting for hours and there was no word, she was still in surgery.

She closed her eyes and tried to think of something else. Anything else. But all she could think of was Callie.

Callie and the horrible bruises and battle scars that riddled her young body.

The brand mark she was sure she saw between the teen's breasts, the cigarette burns on her shoulder, the burn marks on her upper arm - all things she couldn't stop seeing.

Mostly it was Callie's scared brown eyes that she couldn't get out of her head and it was driving her insane. She wanted to punch something, but she also wanted to cry and she wanted to sleep but she was so wired so could run a marathon.

She was exhausted.

Her mind was replaying the night's events on repeat and her emotions were all over the place and it was all too much for her.

The sound of someone clearing their throat near by finally pulled Stef out of her tailspin into insanity.

She was glad to see the clock had moved more than two minutes this time when she glanced at it.

4:01am.

She stood quickly when she realised that the doctor was there to see her.

"Are you Callie Jacob's mother?"

His voice was kind, if a little tired.

"Her foster mom, yes, how is she? Is she okay? Can I see her?"

She ran her hand through her hair, she was jumpy and restless, maybe the coffee hadn't been such a good idea.

"I'm Dr Morgan, I performed Callie's surgery. She's doing great all things considered. The surgery went very well, we were able to remove the bullet with little difficulty and didn't nick any major organs or blood vessels. She should regain full use of the arm and shoulder with time and physiotherapy."

Stef let out her breath. Callie was going to be okay. She was fine.

"The extensive bruising to her ribcage is some cause for concern, however. Two of her ribs are broken, two are fractured, and the rest are very badly bruised. Fortunately no damage was done to the lungs, but her right kidney and her spleen are all so slightly bruised, both should heal without permanent damage. There is no way for us to splint her ribs so she is going to be in a lot of pain for a few weeks. She will need a lot of help and support."

Stef nodded her head. Anything. She would do anything for this girl, she would have all the time and physiotherapy and love and support she needed.

Dr. Morgan continued.

"We will have to discuss her X-rays before you discharge her, but I can see you are anxious to see her so that can wait for the time being. The nurses are getting her settled in her room now, I can take you back to see her if you don't have any questions."

Stef was on her feet in an instant. She was probably supposed to have questions, but she couldn't think of any.

"No, no questions, I just need to see her."

The doctor nodded his head and smiled at her, gesturing for her to follow him as he walked down the corridor towards Callie's room.

After turning down two more corridors, the doctor stopped outside room 6209, standing just outside as he spoke.

"She should be waking up from the anaesthetic in the next hour or so and she'll probably be disorientated and try to pull the oxygen mask off. You just need to keep her calm and make sure she keeps the mask on, if you're having trouble, just hit the call button next to her bed and a nurse will come and assist you."

Stef nodded her head at his words, she just wanted to see the girl, know for certain that she was okay.

"Okay you can go on in."

Stef wasted no time opening the door, muttering a quick but sincere 'thank you' to the doctor as she all but ran into the room.

Her breath caught when she finally saw Callie, looking so small and pale and vulnerable in the hospital bed that seemed much too big for her.

She walked towards the bed, she just wanted to cradle the girl in her arms, take away all the pain and bad memories, take away the scars and the bruises, take away all the bad things Callie had ever been through or witnessed.

But she couldn't. All she could do now was make sure that this girl didn't go through any more, didn't hurt more than she had to.

Stef sat in the chair beside Callie's bed, scooting it closer so that she could reach the brunette.

She slipped her hand into the teen's, mindful of the bandage wrapped around the girl's palm but desperately needing the contact.

The room was quiet save for the beeping of Callie's heart monitor and the breathing of the two women.

Stef's thumb made small circles on the back of Callie's hand as she stared at the teen's face, willing her to wake up.

The white sheets and bright lights in the room made Callie's skin look deathly white and the bruise on her cheek was a startling purple by comparison.

She knew she should talk, let the girl know she was there, but she didn't know what to say.

_Thanks for saving my life? I'm sorry you could have died protecting me? You were so incredibly stupid for doing that?_

Stef wasn't sure which sentence she was going to blurt out so she didn't say anything. She just sat and waited, silently keeping watch over the injured girl.

She could feel her caffeine high wearing off, her head was heavy and it was a battle to keep her eyes open.

Keeping Callie's hand grasped in her own, Stef leaned back in her chair, planning to catch a quick nap before Callie woke up.

Her eyes had been closed for twenty minutes when she heard a groan from the girl on the bed.

Stef sat up quickly in her seat and leaned closer to Callie.

"Shhh Callie, its okay, you're safe. I'm right here sweets, you're okay."

Her voice was soothing as she stood from her seat and moved closer to Callie, running her free hand through the girl's hair.

"Mmm J-Jude...?"

She rasped out her brother's name, her eyes opening but not really seeing the blonde above her, her free hand moving to pull at the mask off her face.

"No no no sweets I need you to keep the mask on okay? Its helping your breathing. Jude's safe, he's fine. He went home with Lena and Brandon. He's okay."

Stef reached for the cup of water on the nightstand as she watched Callie struggle to force words up her dry throat.

"Here you go, have a sip of this, nice and slow thats it."

She gently removed the teen's mask, cupping the back of her head with one hand and holding the straw to her lips with the other.

When Callie had drunk her fill, Stef eased her head back onto the pillow and placed the water back on the table.

"How're you feeling sweets?"

Stef watched as Callie blinked and looked around, taking in her surroundings for the first time.

"Where's Jude?"

She completely ignored Stef's question and didn't seem to have heard her earlier answer.

"Sweets he's at home with Lena and Brandon remember? Brandon promised you he would keep Jude safe?"

The last part sounded like a question because Stef honestly wasn't sure what her son had promised the girl, it was a complete guess.

"I need to see Jude, I need - I need to talk to him"

Callie pushed herself into a sitting position, Stef watched the blood drain out of her face as she did.

"Woah Callie? Callie! Take it easy sweets, you're gonna hurt yourself!"

Stef wanted to push the teen back down but with her left arm in a sling and her right arm holding her body up, Stef wasn't sure where she could touch the girl that wouldn't cause her more pain.

"I just need to see him"

Her voice was a strangled whisper but Stef could still make out the panic and the fear in her tone.

Callie had tears in her eyes and was gritting her teeth, that and the heart monitors beside her bed that were going haywire, let Stef know exactly how much agony the teen was in.

"Callie! You can talk to him, we'll call him on my cell okay, you can speak to Jude if you just lay back down, I promise!"

Callie took a moment to study Stef, saw the naked concern in her eyes as well as the sincerity on her face.

She was telling the truth.

Letting out a breath, Callie lowered herself back to the bed, her shoulder was burning and every movement lit her ribs on fire. She wanted throw up from the pain but she wouldn't. She couldn't. She had to get a hold of herself so she could talk to Jude.

Stef watched as Callie fought to control her breathing and waited until she was certain the teen would stay down before taking out her phone and hitting Lena's speed dial.

She spoke the second Lena answered the phone.

"Lena? Lena is Jude there?"

She kept her eyes trained on Callie. The teen was taking very shallow breaths and had her eyes squeezed shut but she was okay, she was fighting through the pain.

"Uh yeah he's right here. Everything alright babe?"

Lena sounded far too awake for 5am and she didn't sound like she was at home in bed either.

Stef didn't have time to question Lena's whereabouts as Callie was once again trying to sit up.

"Lena please put Jude on the phone. Now!"

She hoped her partner could hear the urgency in her tone, hoped that Lena would hurry up and get Jude on the line before Callie really hurt herself.

"I'm here! I'm right here! Is Callie okay?"

Jude was starting to panic, Stef's tone was scaring him.

Stef put her phone on speaker so Callie could hear.

"Jude? Baby?"

Callie's voice was stronger than it had been when she'd spoken to Stef, but the blonde could tell it was costing her more as well.

"Callie! Are you okay?"

Jude's voice was a mix of relief and fear. His sister was alive, she was talking to him, but she didn't sound so good.

"I'm fine buddy, I'm just fine! Are _you_ okay?"

Stef rolled her eyes, the injured teen had both of her hands fisted in the sheets, her eyes were focused on the ceiling and it was taking everything the girl had to keep the excruciating pain out of her voice and off her face, and she was _still_ more concerned for her brother.

This girl.

Jude breathed a sigh of relief, Callie was going to be okay and he was probably going to see her soon. He answered quickly, wanting to reassure his sister.

"I'm fine"

Stef had thought Callie would relax once she heard her brother was okay, but upon hearing Jude's answer, her body tensed, her face blank, pain forgotten.

"Jude, what happened? What's wrong?"

Her voice was calm but hard and Stef was baffled. The boy had said he was fine, was that also a code word? But hadn't Callie said she was fine too?

"No its nothing! I just - I."

Jude sighed, he didn't want Lena to know what his nightmare had been about, but he needed to tell his sister, she was using her worried voice.

"I had a dream... About - about four"

Callie closer her eyes at Jude's admission, her hand releasing the bed sheet and moving to her stomach, a gesture that did not go unnoticed by Stef.

"Callie, is nine like three?"

Jude didn't wait for Callie to comment on his nightmare, there was nothing she could say about it anyway.

His question caught Callie off guard though.

"Baby of course not! I wouldn't -"

She cut herself off, she didn't want to say too much with Stef and Lena listening. She didn't know them, didn't trust them with this yet. Didn't know if she could.

"Its not like three buddy."

Callie spoke quietly to her brother, studiously avoiding Stef's gaze. She could feel the blonde's eyes on her but she was confident that the cop wouldn't understand most of what was being said.

Jude, on the other end of the line, was looking right at Lena, who kept her eyes firmly on the road, obviously listening to the siblings' conversation, but trying to look like she wasn't.

"Jude?"

Callie didn't have to finish her question, she was asking him what happened, why he would need to ask if Lena, their ninth foster mom, was like Mary, their third.

"I fell and cut my head. I'm okay though. We're on our way to the hospital, I'm coming to see you."

Her brother's voice was very quiet but Callie could hear the truth behind his words.

While her stomach twisted at the thought of him being hurt, she believed him when he said he was fine and she was relieved to hear that he was coming.

The conversation was draining her, the anaesthetic that had been dulling the ache of her injuries was almost completely out of her system and she hurt all over.

Stef was watching her closely, ready to put an end to the phone call if she had to, her mind reeling at what she'd just heard.

She was guessing that the numbers Jude and Callie were using represented previous foster homes, but she didn't know which numbers were which homes, or what had happened at the homes.

She thought that maybe they were number nine, but she wasn't sure. If they were nine, then what or who was three and what was the connection between them?

Lena's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Stef? We are pulling up to the hospital now, I'm gonna take Jude to get his head checked out and then we'll come meet you?"

Stef breathed a sigh of relief; Lena had heard everything too. Between the two of them, hopefully they'd be able to piece together what the kids were talking about.

"Sounds good babe, we're in room 6209."

She let Callie and Jude say goodbye and then she hung up the phone. The room once again fell silent, save for the beeping and the breathing.

Callie seemed much more relaxed since she'd spoken to Jude, but she was still in a great amount of pain and Stef hated that she couldn't take it away for her.

"You stayed."

It wasn't a question, it was just a statement of fact, but Stef's heart broke at the disbelief she heard in the teen's voice.

"Oh sweets of course I stayed. I told you Callie, you aren't alone anymore."

Her voice was gentle and Callie hated that it soothed her, comforted her.

She was starting to like the blonde cop and that scared her. She couldn't afford to let down her guard, to get attached. Jude needed her at her best and she needed to pull it together before he got there and saw her nearly in tears just because Stef had stayed with her in the hospital.

Callie blinked the moisture away, hoping Stef hadn't seen it before she turned to face the blonde.

Part of her wanted to let the blonde in, let the blonde comfort her, and the other part wanted to push her away, make her leave _now_.

_Its just for a few weeks right?_

Lena's words echoed in her mind, reminding her that this was only temporary. As much as she wanted to be comforted by Stef, it would only hurt her more in the long run.

_No!_

She didn't need comforting, she didn't _want_ comforting. Not from Stef, not from anyone. She was stronger than that.

She just had to keep reminding herself.

Before Stef had a chance to say anything, a nurse came in to check on Callie.

The walls that had momentarily collapsed around the teen's heart went right back up as Stef watched.

The blonde sighed.

It was going to take a lot of time and patience for Callie to let her in, but Stef was prepared to fight for her.

They would get their chance to talk. After the nurse left and before Jude and Lena arrived, Stef would have her chance to start earning the teen's trust.

So she waited.

And she hoped she would be able to convince the teen that she was in this for the long haul, because after sitting there and watching Callie fight through the pain she was in; Stef knew that she would never be able to let Callie and Jude go to another foster home. Not when this was the result.

She was going to fix the beautiful broken girl in front of her.

* * *

**_Alright its over. So yeah.. didn't love it, but it was necessary to the rest of the story! All mysteries will be explained and if there is anything that doesn't make sense or bothers you, please let me know! _**

**_Reviews definitely help me write better :) Love to hear what you think! ~BC xo_**


	8. Brave face

**_Okay this is another really long one, i got a few reviews that said they liked long chapters, but if you dont then i am sorry, maybe take a snack break half way through? I'm really annoyed because as i was about to save this, my laptop crashed and i lost all of my final edits, i had added a fair bit in and its all gone now, so if you see a problem, I'm really sorry and i would be really grateful if you pointed it out! _**

**_Read on:_**

* * *

The nurse finished checking Callie over and left the two women alone, telling them that the doctor would be by later to talk to them.

Callie was still in a lot of pain, but having the nurse there had given her the chance she needed to rebuild her walls and rearrange her face into the blank, emotionless mask Stef was currently looking at.

There were so many things the blonde wanted to say, but she was struggling to find a place to start.

She was saved the trouble when Callie spoke first.

"I'm sorry"

The two words were said quietly into the space, Callie kept her eyes trained on her bandaged hand, avoiding Stef's gaze.

"Callie-"

The teen cut her off.

"Look if you wanna send me back to Juvie, then you just promise me that Jude will be somewhere safe."

Stef leaned back in her chair, the words like a physical blow to her.

She thought they would send her _back?_ And she was okay with that? Did she care about anything other than her little brother?

Callie looked up at Stef when the blonde didn't reply.

She could see confusion in the cop's hazel eyes. She could also see the anger.

That's what she'd been expecting. Anger. Callie had taken the woman's son into a potentially fatal situation and there was no way Stef wouldn't hate her for it.

Would Stef hurt her? It wouldn't take much to put Callie in pain, all the blonde would have to do was poke her in the ribs and Callie would probably vomit at the sensation.

She waited for the yelling and screaming, the insults she knew she had coming.

She'd heard it all before, she could take it.

"You're not disposable Callie. You're - You're not worthless."

Huh. That was new.

Her eyes startled up to meet Stef's, the anger she could see _was_ directed at Callie, but not for the reasons she thought.

"I get that Jude's your brother, but sweets you matter too okay?"

Stef was angry at her for not caring about herself. That was new too.

The blonde smiled slightly, and Callie could feel her eyes filling with tears.

She cleared her throat, tried to dislodge the forming lump before she spoke, ignoring Stef's words completely.

"I'm sorry. For bringing Brandon. I shouldn't have let him come."

Stef was shocked. _Thats_ what she was sorry for? After everything that had happened, the teen was just sorry that Brandon had been there?

"I get that you're mad, I would be too if someone had done that to Jude. But I wasn't going to let anything happen to him."

And there it was, what Stef had been afraid of.

The girl saw Jude as her child, and it killed Stef because no sibling should ever have to feel that way. Callie should never have been put in the position where she felt she had to be a mother to her little brother.

Callie meanwhile was mentally kicking herself.

_Why do I keep talking? Just. Shut. Up. _

There was something about Stef that made Callie want to justify her behaviour, she wanted the cop to understand that she wasn't trying to get her son killed and that she wasn't irresponsible. She didn't know why she cared what the blonde thought of her, but she did.

Stef didn't quite know how to respond. All the questions she had been burning to ask, suddenly didn't seem as important as they had, and Stef wasn't so sure she really wanted to hear the answers anymore.

"Say something."

Callie's voice was firm. She hated silence, it was dangerous and scary, she hated not knowing what Stef was thinking, she couldn't read the expression on the blonde's face, it wasn't any emotion Callie was used to seeing on foster parents, or cops for that matter.

It looked like hurt. Or maybe disappointment.

"I - I don't know what to say sweets. I'm not mad at you for taking Brandon, he's just as much to blame for that as you are, and if he hadn't been there, we might not have made it in time. I'm a little mad that you didn't just come to me, I could have gotten Jude out the right way, we could have avoided all of this"

She gestured to Callie and the hospital room in general.

Callie scoffed, studying the bandage on her hand with renewed interest.

"You wouldn't have listened to me. They didn't last time."

She didn't know why she was still talking, why she was giving Stef information that would only lead to more questions.

"Of course I would have listened Love, who didn't listen to you?"

Questions like that.

Callie blew out a breath. It would be easy to lie, she'd lied to people way scarier than Stef and about way more important things. But she found that she didn't want to. She wanted the cop to know how badly she'd been let down, wanted her to understand why she couldn't risk Stef not believing her.

"I called the police once. More than once actually, but this time they actually came and when I told them that our foster father had hit Jude, they didn't believe me. He told them that Jude had tripped and I was being a drama queen and they left."

She looked straight at Stef as she spoke. She said a lot more than she had planned to say, but as the memory had come back to her, so had the anger. She had been so angry when the two officers had listened to her foster father lie through his teeth and then just walked away, leaving her to be punished for calling them.

"No one ever believes the troubled foster kid."

The words were said with so much venom that Stef could do nothing but stare at the broken girl, whose eyes held so much hate for the world and even more for herself.

Stef wanted to reassure her, but it would only be insulting to tell the teen that she was wrong, that people would believe her, because evidently no one ever had.

She blurted out another question instead.

"What happened then? After the police left? What happened?"

She didn't want to know. She kept _telling_ herself she didn't want to know.

It was masochism; Stef knew it would hurt to hear the teen recount her past, watch the girls face as she relived painful memories, but she asked anyway.

She hated it when kids were harmed, she was a cop but on top of that she was a mother, so kids always hit too close to home for her. But _this_ kid was different, Stef felt a kind of attachment to her and she knew that whatever Callie said was going to be painful for them both.

Callie stared back at Stef, her face that careful blank mask again. She'd never told anyone about her various injuries. There was no point, there was nothing anyone could do about them so why bother?

She'd only ever confided in one person, someone she'd thought she could trust, but she'd been wrong and everything she told him came back to bite her.

She couldn't take that risk again.

But Stef was getting under all her walls, and it didn't even look like she was trying to. But the way she spoke to Callie and the way she looked at Callie made the younger girl want to spill all her secrets, tell her everything.

That made her dangerous.

"He uh, hit me. With the fire poker in the living room. He probably would have slashed my throat with it if he hadn't been so drunk he missed."

She said it so offhandedly, her voice flat and indifferent and she hoped Stef couldn't tell how hard she was working to make it sound that way.

Fear. Thats what she was trying to incite in Stef. She wanted to scare the blonde off, make herself seem so damaged and broken that the cop wouldn't even try and help her.

If she had been mobile, she would have run, she would have left Stef before she had a chance to get too close, because she could feel it happening already, she was starting to really like the blonde and it would only hurt her in the long run, it would kill her when her and Jude were inevitably moved.

So because she couldn't run, she had to make Stef.

The older woman was silent for a moment. She schooled her features and hoped like hell that Callie couldn't see the anger and hurt she was trying to hide.

She was a cop, she read people for a living and she saw right through Callie. She saw the game the girl was playing and she'd be lying if she said it didn't shatter her heart watching the injured teen try to push her away in an effort to protect herself.

Stef pushed her thoughts aside and used her cop voice on the teen, trying not to sound as rattled as she felt.

"Did he hit you often?"

She was trying to show Callie that she could take it, that she could here that awful story and ask for more, that she wasn't going to be scared off that easily. She tried to tell Callie all of these things, but her voice was a lot quieter than she'd meant it to be, and she wasn't sure the teen would be convinced.

She watched as Callie's walls went back up and the teen shrugged.

She'd said enough and obviously her plan wasn't working.

Stef was a lot tougher than she'd anticipated. Callie almost wished it had been Lena here instead of her blonde counter part. The dark woman was much softer, more delicate. Callie was sure she could have scared Lena off, but Stef could take it.

In her mind, Lena was like Jude. She was kind and soft and didn't know half of the horrors the world held. She had spent the last six years sheltering and shielding Jude, making sure he retained his innocence, keeping as much of the world away from him as she could. He still believed in the good and in her opinion, so did Lena.

She ignored the fact that her comparison of Jude and Lena, meant that her and Stef were similar too.

But maybe that was why she felt so linked to Stef; they were both the strong ones, they had both witnessed the absolute worst that mankind had to offer, each from a different perspective.

It didn't matter. She still couldn't get attached.

Stef took in a deep breath and let it out. She hadn't asked Callie any of the questions she had actually wanted to, but she felt like she had learned more about the teen than she would if she had.

Knowing what Callie was trying to do made Stef weary, she would have to talk to the teen, convince her that no matter what she said, no matter what horror stories she recounted, Stef was not going to give up on her, she was not going to let her go.

Once she had convinced the girl of that, she would ask her what she wanted to know, she would ask her why she'd put herself in front of that bullet.

Until then, she would just have to stick around, start proving to the girl that she wasn't going anywhere.

The two sat in silence, Callie had her eyes closed and Stef was staring into space.

When her phone buzzed, indicating the arrival of a message, she read it out to the teen.

"Lena said Jude's done with the doctor and they're on their way up."

Stef informed her and Callie opened her eyes and looked at her.

"Take off your shirt."

She was looking at Stef with a completely straight face.

"Excuse me?"

Stef looked at Callie with her eyes wide, wondering if she had heard the teen right.

Callie blushed slightly and Stef felt a smile tug at her lips as the teen looked almost as embarrassed as Stef felt at the request.

"Uh no. Sorry. Do you have something on underneath? Like another shirt or something? Jude doesn't like cops. I mean he knows your a cop, but he'll be less intimidated if you don't look so much like one."

Callie stumbled through her explanation, silently cursing herself for just asking the older woman to take off her clothes like that.

Stef let out a small laugh. It wasn't funny. Jude being afraid of her wasn't funny. But she had a feeling that nothing really flustered Callie and it was amusing to see the teen blush.

"Sure sweets, I do actually have a shirt on underneath."

She quickly unbuttoned her shirt and slipped it off, revealing the tight-fit, grey tee underneath.

Callie nodded as she looked at Stef. She looked less like a cop, and while the belt around her waist with her gun would probably still scare Jude a little, she didn't think the blonde would be willing to take it off.

As Stef was putting her uniform shirt on the chair, she heard a voice behind her.

"Callie!"

Jude entered the room at a run with Lena a few steps behind him.

Stef looked at Callie and watched in amazement as the teen's body relaxed and the pain that was all over her face vanished.

"Hey buddy!"

Callie smiled, and if Stef hadn't been watching as closely as she was, she probably wouldn't have been able to see the pain Callie was hiding under the brave face she had on.

The girl was good.

Jude had a white square of gauze above his eyebrow and some blood on his shirt, but other than that he looked completely unharmed.

He stood on the floor next to Callie's bed and the teen turned her body to face him.

Stef saw her face turn ashen as the movement placed enormous strain on the teen's ribs.

Jude seemed to see it to and spoke before Stef could react.

"No Callie don't move, its okay."

He gently pushed his sister's good shoulder down before turning to pull the chair Stef had been using closer to the bed.

He positioned the chair so that it was right at the side of the bed and the moms watched as Callie moved herself over using her good arm and created a space just big enough for Jude to fit.

The boy climbed up onto the bed and wedged himself in.

The siblings had moved with a practiced ease and it hurt Lena and Stef to watch.

The women stood back to give the kids a moment together, watching as Callie checked her brother over before focussing on each other.

"Hi love"

Lena smiled at Stef, greeting her with an arm around her waist and a kiss on her cheek.

Stef turned and pulled the brunette into a proper hug, whispering hello in her partner's ear.

Lena leaned back in Stef's embrace so she could talk to the blonde.

"How's she doing?"

Stef sighed and glanced over to the bed where the siblings were just laying together, not saying a word.

"She's hurting, but the doctor said she's going to be okay. She's going to need a lot of support as she heals"

She didn't want to have this conversation now. She was already so emotionally drained and she was physically exhausted as well, the only rest she'd gotten was her twenty minute nap while she waited for Callie to wake up.

Lena nodded her head, she knew what Stef was getting at. The blonde wanted _them_ to support Callie while she healed.

"Stef these kids have been through hell"

Lena didn't know exactly what Callie and Jude had had to deal with during their years in the foster system, but she had a feeling it was worse than anything she could imagine and she couldn't bear the thought of the siblings having to go through it all again.

Stef nodded her head and Lena knew they were both thinking along the same lines, but Stef had been the one who wasn't happy with Callie being in the house and Lena didn't want to pressure her into taking both kids in now.

"We really don't have the room"

She was giving Stef an out, hoping and praying she wouldn't take it.

"Then we'll make room"

The women smiled at each other, they would have to talk to Bill and the kids, and they would have to work out the space, but that could come later.

The stood in silence, content in each other's presence until Stef's stomach growled.

"When was the last time you ate?"

Stef thought about the question.

"I had a cheese stick last night, before..."

She trailed off, Lena knew the end of that sentence.

"Have _you_ eaten?"

Stef redirected, moving the conversation along.

"No I haven't. I asked Jude if he was hungry but he said he wasn't. He didn't have anything last night either. I'm worried."

Stef could see in Lena's eyes that she was worried about more than the kid's eating habits.

They turned back to Callie and Jude on the bed, catching the end of their conversation.

"I was really scared Callie"

The boy was looking at his sister with tears in his eyes and Lena and Stef had to fight back tears of their own as they heard the fear in his voice.

"Baby you know I'd never let anything happen to you. You don't have to be scared, I'll always keep you safe"

Jude was snuggled into Callie's side, his head resting on her uninjured shoulder. He had his hands fisted in her hospital gown and she had her arm around him, her hand stroking his head.

"I wasn't scared for me, I was scared for _you_. I was scared you were gonna leave me again."

Jude sobbed into Callie's neck as she soothed him, fighting back her own tears because one of them had to be strong.

Lena turned around as she felt the tears slip down her cheeks. Stef's eyes remained locked on the siblings, her heart aching for them both.

Callie comforted her brother for a few more minutes, waiting for his sobs to subside before she tried to talk to him.

"You hungry buddy?"

The moms shared a look when Jude nodded that he was.

Callie caught the look and spoke to Lena for the first time in twenty four hours.

"You offered him food?"

Her voice was strained and it was clear from the tense set of her jaw that she was in pain, but she was determined to ignore it for Jude.

"Yeah I did, he said he wasn't hungry."

Lena sounded defeated and hurt.

Callie and Jude looked at each other, silently conversing.

Stef and Lena just watched the two, waiting for them to reach some sort of decision.

Finally Callie spoke. Her voice guarded and soft, she didn't want to tell them, but she felt like she owed the women an explanation.

"About five years ago, we went into our third foster home and the foster mom, Mary, was uh not very nice"

She was a bitch but Callie didn't think the women would appreciate her language.

Lena nodded for her to continue.

"Well actually, she was really nice at first. When we got there she showed us to our room and even helped us unpack. But then she-"

Callie paused, looking down at Jude as if she was unsure. It was the first time Stef had seen the girl doubt herself and she didn't like it.

Jude seemed to reassure her, and Stef thought she heard him tell Callie that it was okay, like he was forgiving her for something.

Callie cleared her throat and carried on.

"She took us downstairs into the kitchen and offered us each a cookie. I said no, but Jude said yes and-"

She stopped again, her eyes trained on the ceiling as she tried to blink away her tears. She didn't get to cry. Not over this.

"She gave me the cookie and then she hit me."

Jude's voice was small, his eyes were on his sister but his words were for the speechless women in the middle of the room.

Callie pulled herself together, drawing strength from her little brother's confession.

"She did that a lot, she offered us something and she hurt us if we took it. Most times it was things like food, things we couldn't _not_ take, but I always took it for the both of us, she never touched Jude after that first time."

She wanted the women to understand that they didn't have a choice. There was no way she could have avoided the beatings. But more importantly, she wanted them to know that she had protected Jude. She hadn't let him get hurt again.

She didn't tell the moms about the other ways Mary hurt her, but it wasn't relevant, she'd been able to protect Jude from that.

Callie had finished their story with an emotionless voice. She wasn't looking for pity or sympathy. She didn't deserve either, she'd let Jude get hurt. It wasn't the first time, or the last, but it was one she should have seen coming and should have prevented.

She was supposed to go first. She was supposed to stand on all the land mines, have them blow up in her face so that Jude knew where they were, so that he could avoid them, and at Three, she had let him down.

"It was my fault. I should have taken the cookie first, but she had seemed so nice and- It doesn't matter. I told Jude to never take anything from anyone unless I did it first."

Callie looked at Lena, who was looking back at her, her face a mask of horror.

"He wasn't trying to offend you. He was just doing what I told him. He didn't know it was okay."

Lena was heartbroken, she couldn't imagine anyone hitting the beautiful boy in front of her and she hated the self loathing she could hear in his sister's voice.

Stef was furious. She hated this 'Mary' with every fibre of her being.

She hated how devastated and ashamed Callie looked when Jude had admitted to being hit. She knew Callie blamed herself and there was nothing anyone could say to change her mind.

Callie was exhausted. The pain in her ribs was starting to overwhelm her and her emotions were all over the place.

She had made a decision when she saw Lena cry earlier, when Jude said he was scared for her. She could tell that Lena had formed some sort of bond with her little brother and she was glad for it.

Lena and Stef were good people, good mothers. And Jude was an amazing kid and for the most part he was okay, not nearly as damaged as Callie.

If she told Jude to trust the Fosters, he would, no questions asked.

And if Lena and Stef got to know Jude, they would see just how special he was and hopefully they'd keep him for a while. Maybe they'd adopt him, they'd done it before, with the twins.

Callie would hang around for a while, just to make sure everything was alright and Jude was okay, and then she'd leave him there, when she knew he was safe.

Because she always screwed things up for him. She always ruined the good things for him and she wouldn't do it again.

If it hadn't been for her, Jude would still be in Five, he would have been happy and he would have been _safe_. But she had destroyed that for them both, she'd let herself get comfortable and she'd let her guard down and then she'd spent two years paying dearly for it.

She could have lived with it, but in the end, Jude had suffered for her stupidity. She deserved it, she deserved everything that happened at Six, Seven and Eight, but Jude, her sweet baby brother had been punished alongside her. Forced to live with the consequences of her actions because they were a package deal.

But if he got adopted by the Fosters, then he wouldn't have to pay for Callie's mistakes anymore. And Callie could live in whatever home they sent her to, she could even go back to juvie, and it wouldn't matter to her, not if she knew Jude was safe.

She could walk away from the Fosters, even though it would hurt her to do so.

She hated that she was starting to like Stef. Hated that she already felt a connection with the woman.

A part of her just wanted to let Stef in, wanted to let Stef to be there for her in the middle of the night when the memories came back to haunt her, let Stef hug her and hold her and make it alright.

But the bigger part of her knew better. The part of her that had protected her brother for the last six years, and protected Stef the night before. _That_ part of her knew that she had to distance herself from the Fosters, for Jude.

Stef watched the thoughts flicker across Callie's face. She couldn't read them all, but she didn't like whatever decision the teen had come to, not when it caused the pained expression she was currently looking at, the one that had nothing to do with physical discomfort.

"Babe, why don't you take Jude down to the cafeteria? And could you grab me a bagel or something on your way back?"

Stef smiled at Lena and her partner took the hint.

"Jude?"

She looked at the boy, waiting for his answer. He, however, was looking at Callie, waiting for hers.

"Go ahead baby, its alright."

He looked skeptical, but he got down off the bed, missing Callie's grimace of pain as he pushed against her accidentally.

She caught his hand before he turned away.

"Nine is like Base buddy, okay?"

They'd never compared anything to Base before. They'd never been in a home good enough.

Jude smiled the first real smile since he'd gotten there.

"Okay"

His voice was soft but hopeful, he leaned in and let Callie kiss his cheek before turning around and walking over to Lena.

He slipped his hand into hers and stood beside her, waiting for her to lead him.

The look of absolute elation that passed over Lena's face told Callie that she'd done the right thing.

She knew Jude wouldn't open up to Lena right away, but he wasn't scared of her anymore and thats all Callie had wanted.

If Lena wanted Jude's trust, she would have to earn it herself, and Callie had a good feeling that she would do just that.

Lena shared a bewildered look with Stef before leading Jude out of the room towards the cafeteria, she was surprised at his sudden change of heart, but she didn't want to question it just yet, not when the little boy beside her looked so at peace.

Jude followed Lena, his hand warm in hers as they walked together in companionable silence.

Callie said that Nine was like Base.

Base had been their home, their real home, where they'd lived with their mom and dad, before the system and the pain it came with.

Nine being like Base gave Jude hope, made him excited to go home to a foster house, something that never happened.

As Lena and Jude disappeared down the hallway, Stef reclaimed the seat by Callie's bed.

She had her cop face on even though she was sore and tired, Callie could feel the tension radiating off of the blonde.

"Sweets we need to talk."

Her voice brooked no argument and Callie had a feeling whatever the blonde was about to say was going to ruin her plans entirely.

She threw her walls up, nodded her head and waited for Stef to speak.

* * *

**_Woooohoooo. Done. Okay so there it is, next chapter will be all the serious things Stef and Callie need to discuss. If there is anything you want to see in their confrontation, let me know! And if something bothers you about this chapter, let me know, could be a part i'd meant to cut out for all you know! _**

**_Don't know when i will be able to update as i have a busy day of school tomorrow, but it will be Tuesday at the latest! Please leave me a review, they make my day and tomorrow is monday, everyone needs a little bit of extra loving on a monday! ~BC xo_**


	9. Who protects you?

**_Alright here. Have it. This chapter has driven me up the wall for two days! I have SIX different versions of it! none of which are similar in anyway and all of which have their pro's and cons. This is me trying to pick the best bits out of all of them. It is 2am and i am exhausted, all mistakes are unbetad and therefore my own. iloveyou all for reviewing! The reviews seriously kept me going with this one! _**

**_Here it is:_**

* * *

Stef sighed as she watched the teen shut down, her mask sliding firmly into place. This wasn't what she wanted. It was the opposite of what she wanted.

"Hey, don't do that, don't shut me out."

Her voice was softer, almost pleading. She reached for Callie's hand but pulled back when the teen flinched away.

"What do you want to talk about?"

Callie's tone was flat and emotionless, the blonde was getting to her already and she couldn't afford the connection that a physical touch would bring.

"Last night."

Two words, but Stef could see Callie tense up at hearing them, Stef wondered what she'd thought they were going to talk about.

"What about it?"

Wow. The girl was really not going to make this easy on her.

She blew out a breath and finally asked the question she'd spent half the night asking herself.

"Callie why didn't you let me into the house?"

It wasn't the exact question, but it was a start in that direction.

Callie's eyes betrayed nothing as she answered Stef.

"Uh because he had a gun?"

Her voice sounded almost sarcastic, as if the answer was obvious.

Stef saw it for what it was, she could see how Callie was trying to push her away, trying to be rude and offensive in the hopes that Stef would give up.

She wouldn't.

"So did I sweets, thats not good enough."

If Callie was going to make it difficult then so was Stef. She wanted to know what the teen had been _thinking, _she wanted a real reason and she was going to keep asking until she got one.

Callie looked Stef in the eye, trying to see what the cop wanted from her, what she wanted her to say.

She couldn't tell Stef the truth, she couldn't say that she missed her own mom, that she had lived the past six years with a hole in her heart that her mother used to fill and she didn't want Stef's kids to know what that felt like.

She couldn't say that because it would give Stef too much power, it would make Callie too vulnerable if the blonde knew how much she cared.

"You weren't supposed to be there"

Is what she finally said. She knew it wasn't a full explanation, but it was a start, it would buy her time to think, sort through her thoughts and find something to say that was close enough to the truth that Stef would believe it.

"What does that mean sweets?"

Stef prompted the teen, she wanted the girl to say it.

"You shouldn't have been there, you or Brandon or that other guy. No one else was supposed to be in danger."

Callie took a breath and tried to get her emotions in check, all the feelings from the previous night had come crashing back and she had to work hard to keep them from showing on her face.

"So you knew you'd be in danger?"

Stef was trying very hard to keep herself under control. She was angry with the teen's complete disregard for her own safety, but it would do no good to shout at her.

Callie just shrugged in response, not trusting her voice to stay steady if she spoke and not really knowing what to say either.

She wouldn't apologise for what she'd done because she didn't regret it in the least. She wasn't sorry that she was shot and not Stef, and she wouldn't lie to the cop, not about that.

"Callie I'm just trying to understand love, I'm not mad, I'm just want to know what you were thinking."

The teen met her gaze briefly before looking down and answering.

"I don't know what I was thinking."

The line was so well rehearsed, she'd said it dozens of times over the years.

Foster parents tended to ask rhetorical questions but expect answers and Callie had quickly learnt that if she just said she didn't know what she was thinking, she got hurt significantly less than if she gave a real reason.

She hoped Stef would just accept it and stop talking, but she didn't.

"Don't lie to me."

Her voice was hard and her eyes sharp as they bored into Callie.

"Don't lie to _me!_"

Callie shot right back, unflinching under Stef's gaze.

She saw the surprise on Stef's face, but she didn't stop, her tone mimicked Stef's as she kept talking.

"You _are_ mad so don't tell me that you're not."

Stef's eyes widened, how had the teen known she was lying?

As though she had read the blonde's mind, Callie answered her question.

"I've been in eight foster homes, being able to read people is how I lived past Two."

She wasn't trying to scare Stef, she was trying to explain so that the blonde wouldn't try to deny it.

Stef was shocked and also dismayed at Callie's admission.

She was surprised that the girl could tell she was lying, but even more so that she'd called her on it, though she supposed she had done it first.

What really stuck her was how casually Callie talked about her past foster homes. She didn't give any specifics but each time she even i_mplied_ she'd been abused, Stef felt the air leave her lungs.

She wondered if it would feel like that every time she learned something new about the siblings, if it would be like getting punched in the gut every time she heard the story behind a scar or the reason behind a reaction.

She hoped it wouldn't keep hurting like that because she would never not want to know.

"Okay sweets, no more lying. I _am_ mad. You shouldn't have held me back babe, I'm a cop, its my _job_ to be the one in front of the gun."

Stef didn't sound mad, she sounded defeated and for some reason that spoke more to Callie than anger ever could have.

"He would have killed you."

There was no malice in her voice, she was just pointing out a fact.

"He _nearly_ killed _you"_

Stef twisted the teen's words back at her, her temper rising as she tried to make Callie understand how badly the night could have ended, make her see that she could very well have lost her life.

"But he didn't"

Callie was quick to respond.

"But he _could_ have!"

She was rapidly losing her cool as the teen continued to argue with her.

"But. He. Didn't"

Callie spoke slowly and emphasised each syllable as if Stef was hard of hearing.

The blonde finally snapped.

"But he _could have_ Callie! He could have killed you! Why didn't you just let me in? Why did you protect me?"

Stef was done trying to be gentle, it wasn't getting through to the girl and she could no longer control her anger.

She wasn't yelling, but her voice was raised and Callie had a feeling that was something the blonde rarely did.

"Because its what I do!"

Callie was shouting with everything she had but her voice was only about as loud as Stef's had been, the cop's anger was contagious and Callie was mad as well.

"Its what I do."

Her voice was barely above a whisper as she repeated herself, her anger evapourating at the hurt look on Stef's face.

She hadn't meant to say it. She hadn't meant to let Stef get inside her head like that but she had, and somehow the blonde woman had managed to make Callie angry and it just slipped out.

There was no going back, she'd said it and now she needed to finish it, she needed to tell Stef because the blonde had earned that much, she'd stayed in the hospital all night and Callie could at least give her this.

"I protect Jude, I make sure our foster parents don't hurt him or any other kids that are in the house with us. I'm the one they hurt, the _only_ one they hurt. I protect them"

She was breathing hard, her ribs were screaming and her shoulder throbbing and her head swimming from the overwhelming pain searing through her nervous system.

She'd said too much, she'd admitted to more than she'd ever intended and she was absolutely terrified, but she couldn't let Stef see that. She couldn't let the blonde know how deep in she was.

**"But who protects you sweets?"**

Stef's voice was raw. All the air raced out of her lungs and she felt like she was drowning, like she couldn't get a breath in and it hurt.

This girl was hurting her because she couldn't see how incredible she was. She had been through hell, she had been subjected to horrors that even Stef could not begin to imagine and she had done it all to keep other kids safe.

"No one. I don't need anyone."

She was trying to sound strong, but Stef could hear the catch in her voice, she could hear the tears that the teen was trying to swallow down and she hated being on the other side of the walls the girl was putting up around her heart.

"Sweets you are just as important as Jude and whatever other kids you protected, you matter just as much as them honey and someone should have protected you too.

She had laid herself bare to the cop but she could see the anguish on Stef's face, she could see that the blonde didn't truly understand, not yet.

Callie shook her head.

"You don't get it. I deserved it, all of it. But Jude didn't, and _you_ didn't."

She heard Stef's sharp intake of breath, but she could see that the cop was going to argue and she cut her off before she began.

"You have Brandon and Lena and -and the twins and I don't know, probably a mom and dad, maybe some brothers or sisters. You have friends and coworkers and just people. You have people who care if you get hurt."

And then she saw the understanding dawn on Stef's face.

She leaned back into the pillows and closed her eyes, tried to keep the surge of emotion from overwhelming her.

Her walls were falling down around her and she was fighting so hard to keep them up, but the bricks were crumbling to dust and everything was starting to slip through the cracks.

Stef sat back in her chair absolutely speechless.

She'd finally asked the questions that she'd burned to ask all night long and she desperately wished she hadn't. She wished she hadn't pushed so hard because the teen in front of her didn't even look like a teenager anymore.

She looked like a broken little girl, a child who had been mutilated and damaged beyond belief, but worse than that; she'd been convinced she deserved it.

In that moment, Callie looked like a child who's heart had been shattered by every foster parent who forced her to be a protector, forced her to give up her innocence and wellbeing for the sake of other children.

Stef's own heart fractured as she watched the girl try to hold herself together, her knuckles white as she gripped the blankets covering her legs and her eyes scrunched shut against the physical and emotional pain.

When Stef saw a tear break through Callie's barriers and slip down her cheek, she could no longer just stand by and watch her fall apart.

She stood and carefully slipped her arm behind Callie's shoulders, she wanted nothing more than to hold the girl tightly to her, but she couldn't, she wouldn't risk hurting her like that.

Callie tensed up at the contact and tried to sit up, to pull away from Stef's arm, but as she moved, her ribs protested and she gasped, the first audible sign of pain Stef had heard from her.

"Shh sweets, its okay, I've got you."

Stef's voice was choked up. She was half on and half off the bed, her left arm around Callie and her right hand firmly grasping the teen's.

"You didn't deserve any of this love, not a single bit of it."

Stef whispered into Callie's hair as the girl continued to struggle against her.

"You have people who care Callie, you have Jude and you are his whole world. And now you have Lena and Brandon and Jesus and Mariana too"

Callie was still fighting her and Stef could feel tears pricking at her eyes as the teen silently struggled in her arms, biting her split lip to keep herself from crying out.

"Just let me go, please just let me go"

Callie's voice cracked and she didn't care, she couldn't focus on anything other than the excruciating pain in her ribs, but she could feel Stef there, could feel the blonde's arm around her and her hand squeezing Callie's bandaged one and she liked it.

She liked being in Stef's arms and that wasn't okay. She could not let herself get comfortable, it would only hurt her later.

"I'm not letting you go sweets, you don't have to do this alone anymore Callie, just let me in baby."

That did it.

Hearing Stef call her Baby broke something in the girl and she went limp in Stef's arms, her head falling into the blonde's neck as she leaned back into the embrace.

Stef could feel Callie's tears dripping onto her collar and desperately tried to swallow back her own, but it was a losing battle. She felt the hot moisture streaking down her cheeks as she held the sobbing teen in her arms.

No more words were spoken as both women just took a moment to regroup, try to pull themselves back together again.

Stef cried for the broken girl in her arms who no one had ever stood up for.

Callie cried for all the times she'd tried to stand up for her little brother and failed.

"You can't save him from everything Love"

Stef's whispered words startled Callie. The woman had practically read her mind.

Callie didn't respond, but she squeezed the blonde's hand to let her know she'd heard.

She was getting too close. She had told Stef more than she'd ever told anyone before and yet there was so much she hadn't said. So much she wanted to say. So much she would _never _say.

Stef and Lena were good people, but they didn't know what it was like. They wouldn't understand Callie's trust issues or her protective instincts and while Stef had pushed her today, forced her to explain herself and not taken Callie's weak excuses, there would inevitably come a day when the blonde didn't push so hard, when she didn't want to know any more.

Callie had seen her face every time she mentioned an old foster home, it seemed to tear Stef up inside and Callie was sure that eventually the cop would stop asking, she would stop wanting to know and it would break Callie when it happened.

So as she lay in Stef's arms, she slowly started to rebuild her walls with whatever she had left, she tried to plaster up the cracks but she knew on some level that it was no use, the blonde had trashed them completely and Callie didn't know how or why.

When her tears finally dried, she could feel Stef's hand carding through her hair, her other thumb rubbing circles on the back of Callie's right hand, she could feel the blonde's touch all the way through the bandage and it was soothing in a way she was unfamiliar with.

She was exhausted but she wouldn't sleep. Sleep made you vulnerable and that was something she could never be around a foster parent.

Stef could feel Callie fading in her arms, but every time the teen was just about to fall asleep, she jerked herself back to wakefulness and every time she did, Stef could see the pain it was causing her.

"Sleep love, you'll feel better."

Callie didn't respond to Stef's murmured command, she didn't trust her sleep addled brain not to slur her words.

She couldn't sleep.

She wouldn't.

"I'll be here when you wake up Callie, I'll be right here with you, I'm not leaving."

Stef hoped that her reassurance was all the teen needed to be able to let go.

Much to Callie's dismay; it was.

* * *

**_Alright, so tell me if you liked it, hated it, any opinions really.. Also how about that promo for episode 20? OMIGODDDD crazy. Please drop me a review, i love to hear what you think. If this chapter seems contradicting or repetitive, i'm gonna say that is because the characters were emotionally drained and just muddling through as best they could. much like me. _**

**_Review review review! :) ~BC xo _**


	10. She saved our mom

**_Right, chapter 10! I cant believe this story made it this far! I thought i had 3 maybe 4 chapters in me, but you and your reviews just kept me going, made me want to keep writing, so thank you all for making me write this fic, i'm loving it and there is so much more to come! Here is a bit more Jude/Lena, and some sibling love as well, we never watched the twins get told about that night so i just winged it! _**

**_You all said you liked the long ones, so buckle up coz here is the longest one yet:_**

* * *

Lena and Jude walked hand in hand towards the cafeteria, both lost in their own thoughts and neither attempting to start a conversation.

The sibling's confession played over and over in Lena's mind, she couldn't get Jude's words out of her head.

_She gave me the cookie and then she hit me._

The look on the boy's face had been heartbreaking, he wasn't upset about being hit, on the contrary, much to Lena's horror, he had made the abuse sound like a regular occurrence, like being struck by a foster parent was normal and okay.

What had really seemed to devastate him was how upset his sister was. It had looked like _he_ was comforting_ her, _not the other way around and that crushed Lena for reasons she couldn't explain.

The sibling's relationship simultaneously made her feel sick, but also reassured her and the combination was wreaking havoc with her mind.

On one hand, she hated how dependant the siblings were, hated that they'd had no one but each other to rely on over the years because that wasn't how it was supposed to be, neither sibling should ever have had to comfort the other the way she had just watched those kids comfort each other.

She really really hated the fact that they had been forced to protect each other and be strong for each other. She wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all. They were great kids, who had been through the wars and somehow pulled each other through and as much as she hated that they'd bonded over their shared horrific experiences, she was also beyond grateful for their close connection.

She had a feeling that one of the only reasons the two had survived the foster system was because they had each other.

From just the short interaction she had witnessed, she could see that the siblings were strong for each other and both drew strength from the other.

When they had recounted what that devil of a woman had done to them, Jude had quietly leaned on his sister as she began their story, and when he could see she was struggling, he jumped straight in, giving his sister back her strength, and Callie had let him take over, let him be the brave one if only for a moment before she had pulled herself together to finish the terrible tale.

The whole thing had been painful to watch and yet as much as it tore Lena apart, it reassured her as well, because she could see that there was nothing that Callie and Jude wouldn't do for each other and that gave her hope.

When one of them faltered, the other took up the slack, they trusted each other, and Lena hoped that one day the siblings would be able to trust her and Stef the same way, that they wouldn't feel the need to protect each other so fiercely, that they would feel comfortable depending on the women.

She hoped that Callie and Jude would be able to just be brother and sister again, she wanted them to be able to reclaim their childhood and just fight and argue like normal siblings, something she was sure they'd never done.

She wanted so much for the beautiful, damaged children she was starting to love, and she knew that her and Stef were both more than willing to provide them with the love and support they so desperately needed.

She would have to talk to her partner, but she could tell by the way the blonde acted around Callie that Stef was just as in love with the Jacobs' as she was, they would give the kids the family they needed and the attention they deserved.

They would save these siblings no matter how long it took.

With her renewed determination, Lena looked up and realised they had somehow made it all the way to the hospital cafeteria.

She looked down at Jude, who also seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.

"Okay sweetie, what do you feel like eating?"

Jude looked up at her and furrowed his brow.

"Um, I don't know, what do you feel like?"

It was a trick Callie had taught him, never ask for anything, just go along with what everyone else is having so that you aren't a burden.

The way Lena was looking at him though, with her eyes full of kindness and her smile that seemed so genuine, he didn't feel like he was being a burden.

But in his mind, that gave him all the more reason to be easy going, if he didn't cause trouble then maybe the women would keep him and Callie for a while longer.

Lena's gaze grew impossibly softer as she crouched down next to Jude and held both of his hands in hers.

"Sweetie, you don't have to be afraid okay? I'm not going to hurt you. You can get whatever you like and maybe you can help me grab breakfast for Callie as well? You know what she likes to eat better than I do"

She may not be a cop, but she _was_ a mother, and on top of that a Vice Principal, she could see when a child was holding something back from her.

"I'm not Mary honey, I will never hurt you or Callie, and as long as you're with us, Stef and I will make sure you have plenty to eat and are safe and happy okay? I promise"

She didn't know how to get through to the boy, how to prove that she wasn't going to cause him harm like so many in her position had.

Jude thought about it and considered what Callie had said.

_Nine is like Base. _

She'd never said that before, Base had always been the dream, never the reality. Base was the stories that Callie told him on the really bad nights, the nights where she had protected him and he had let her, the nights when they'd both hurt physically and emotionally.

He knew Callie would never lie to him, and he was really hungry, he hadn't eaten anything since lunch time the day before.

He trusted Callie, and she said he could trust Lena as well.

"Maybe some toast?"

He was hesitant so suggest it, but the smile that stretched across Lena's face at his simple request made him feel instantly better.

"Sounds great! I think I'll get some as well."

She stood back up, but kept hold of his hand, she had always been an affectionate person, and from the way Jude had instantly been soothed by his sister's touch, she had a feeling Jude was as well.

They walked to the end of the line and waited behind the five people ahead of them.

"What do you think Callie would want?"

She was trying to engage the boy in conversation, but as she looked down at him, he looked down at his feet.

"Callie doesn't eat breakfast."

His voice was quiet and Lena could feel all the progress they'd just made start to slip away.

"Why doesn't she eat breakfast honey?"

Lena had a sinking feeling that she didn't want to know, but she sensed that Jude needed to tell her, he needed someone else to share the load with.

"She just used to get sick a lot, in the mornings especially, so she doesn't eat breakfast because then there isn't anything to throw up and she won't get in trouble"

Jude shrugged as he spoke, trying to pass it off as no big deal when it was, he knew it was, but he was trying to be like Callie. She had a way of talking about the horrible things like they didn't matter, like they didn't hurt.

Lena tried not to react as she listened to Jude, but her mind was buzzing as she tried to think of why Callie would have been so sick.

"Why'd she get sick? Did she have a bug?"

Jude finally looked up at Lena, studying her intensely. He could see the concern and worry in her eyes, but no hint of malice or anger.

He took a breath to steady himself before he told her.

"Our foster father would get really drunk after he got home from work. He would get really angry and mean and he'd hit Callie, or he would try to hit me but Callie would get in the way, and usually it was okay, he was too drunk to do anything too bad, but sometimes he would just start kicking Callie in the stomach and he wouldn't stop until he got tired or she stopped moving"**  
**

He swiped furiously at his eyes as he remembered dragging his sister to bed on those nights, trying to look after her like she always looked after him.

He was angry at himself for crying, Callie wouldn't have cried. He sniffed as he carried on, suddenly wishing he hadn't said anything at all.

"She would be sick for the whole week, but the next morning was always the worst. So Callie doesn't eat breakfast."

His voice was strong again as he thought of his sister and how brave she was.

She had been the same age Jude was now when it had all happened, they'd been living at Two, one of the really bad ones.

Lena was devastated at hearing Jude's story, hearing him say that being beaten by their foster father was okay had snapped something inside of her and the usually non-violent brunette was suddenly overwhelmingly glad that the man was dead by Stef's gun.

She smiled sadly down at Jude and squeezed his hand gently.

"Well he can't hurt either of you anymore, he's dead now Love, you don't have to worry about him anymore."

She watched as Jude's face twisted in confusion.

"He's not dead."

He spoke gently as if he was breaking bad news to Lena.

Lena startled, she just assumed Jude had seen his foster father get shot, but apparently he wasn't aware that the man was dead and Lena didn't know how he would react to the news.

"Honey, remember last night? Remember how Stef shot him? He's gone Jude, he is never coming back"

She was trying to be gentle, using the information she had learned from Brandon as he had given his statement to try and jog his memory.

"No he was our foster father a long time ago. He was in our second foster home, I think he's still alive, but he isn't allowed to have foster kids anymore, not after... us."

He faltered as he finished speaking, he couldn't tell Lena, not without talking to Callie first.

Callie didn't like to talk about how they got removed from each foster home. Probably because they were only removed when things got really bad, when one of them got really hurt. When _Callie_ got really hurt, it was always Callie.

Lena could see that there was something he wasn't saying, but she didn't push him. He had already told one emotionally-draining story and Lena thought that was enough for the time being.

There would be plenty of time later, hopefully after Lena had had a chance to talk to Stef and vent some of the anger she was feeling towards the kids' previous foster parents. After she had patched up the hole in her heart that kept ripping open every time she learned something new about the siblings.

Thankfully, they'd reached the front of the line. They were both able to quietly collect themselves as Lena ordered their toast and orange juice and a bagel and coffee for Stef.

The two carried their trays over to a near by table. Lena took a seat and was overjoyed when Jude chose to sit next to her instead of across the table from her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Jude hesitate as he was about to take a bite of his breakfast. She turned to him and smiled as she took a bite of her own, hoping that he would imitate her.

He tentatively nibbled on the corner of his toast and Lena smiled and looked away from him, not wanting him to feel like she was watching him eat.

Satisfied that it was okay, Jude calmed down and quietly crunched on his food.

As they ate in silence, Lena could feel the little boy inching his way closer to her and she smiled.

He was really a sweet kid and Lena had a feeling that Callie had sacrificed a lot to make sure he stayed that way.

As they finished eating, Lena felt her phone buzz and took it out of her pocket, holding the device in one hand as Jude slipped his fingers into her other, Stef's bagel under Lena's arm and her coffee in Jude's tight grip.

She read the text and smiled, typing out her response as they made their way back to Callie's room.

* * *

"Mariana come on! You've been in there for like half an hour!"

Brandon pounded on the bathroom door for the fourth time that morning.

He had woken the twins up at 6am and neither of them had been very happy about it, usually sleeping in till at least 10 on the weekend.

"I'm doing my hair! Just five more minutes!"

Mariana's voice was muffled through the door, it was the third time she had said those words and Brandon wasn't holding his breath.

After Lena had left with Jude, Brandon had tried to go back to sleep, but every time he closed his eyes, he saw Callie lying on the floor with blood pouring out of her shoulder and his mom leaning over her, trying to stop the bleeding.

He had finally given up trying at around 5:30, opting instead to have a shower and start getting ready for the day.

He'd woken his brother and sister, telling them to get up and get ready before making his way downstairs to have some cereal.

Jesus had grumbled at the early wake up call, but when Brandon told him they needed to go to the hospital, he had followed his brother's instructions.

Mariana had put up more of a fight.

"Why do we have to go, we don't even know her!"

She had said variations of the same statement for the next fifteen minutes, long enough for Jesus to finish in the shower.

Brandon'd told her that their moms needed them to get to the hospital as soon as they could, and that white lie had finally gotten his sister moving, though she complained the entire time.

That had been thirty minutes ago and Brandon was anxious to get going, he needed to see how Callie was and he needed to check on Jude, keep his promise to watch out for the young boy.

"Mariana!"

He pounded his fist against the door one more time and was surprised when it opened.

"Chill, I'm out! What's the hurry anyway?"

She brushed past him and made her way down the stairs, not waiting for his answer.

He followed her as she made her way to the kitchen and waited for her to sit down opposite Jesus before he sat at the head of the table.

"So are you going to tell us what happened last night?"

Jesus managed to get his question out around his mouthful of cereal, looking expectantly at his brother.

Brandon sighed, he'd known the question was coming but he still didn't know how to answer it.

He took a breath and prepared to just get it over all in one go.

"Yesterday at school I saw Callie leaving early so I followed her to see where she was going and this random number had been calling my phone all day and when it rang again she grabbed it from me and answered it and it was her brother Jude and-

Mariana held up her hand to stop him.

"How did her brother get your number?"

Her face was suspicious, like she thought there was something he wasn't telling them.

Brandon shrugged his shoulders.

"Callie said she borrowed my phone on her first night here and used it to call him."

Mariana seemed satisfied with his answer and nodded for him to continue.

"Any way so her brother called and I think their foster father was hurting him or something because Callie was getting really upset -"

It was Jesus who stopped him the second time, thankfully swallowing before asking his question.

"Dude why didn't you just tell mom? She's a cop, she could have gotten him out of there if he was being hurt!"

Jesus was also suspicious of his brother. Brandon was usually a lot smarter than that and he always followed the rules and told him mom everything.

Brandon wasn't sure if he should tell them, but he figured they would find out eventually, so he took a breath and just said it quickly.

"Because Callie's been in juvie, she got arrested for smashing up her foster dad's car while he was hitting her brother, she said that if i told mom then she could get sent back to juvie because her foster dad had all these complaints against her"

He looked back and forth between his siblings, both looked very shocked at hearing Callie had been incarcerated.

"She was in juvie?"

Jesus's tone was disbelieving, but as he thought about it, juvie would explain the bruises on her face, she probably got beaten up while she was in.

"Yeah but it wasn't her fault, what was she supposed to do? Let her brother get hurt?"

Brandon couldn't explain why he felt the need to defend Callie but he did, it hadn't been her fault, she was only trying to protect her brother.

"Okay, so you didn't call mom and you went with her, what happened when you got there?"

Mariana's tone held no judgement, just curiosity, which Brandon could deal with.

"When we got there, I knocked on the door and pretended to ask where the metro was, to keep the foster father distracted while Callie got Jude out, but he must have heard her or something and he was really drunk and started shouting at her and then he pulled out a gun and -"

Jesus cut him off Brandon's rambling, his spoon clattering loudly as he dropped it back into the bowl.

"Woah wait, the guy had a _gun?_ Mama must have flipped!"

It was no secret that Lena hated guns. Stef never talked about her work because she knew her partner was uncomfortable at even the mention of firearms.

"Well yeah, I mean, she didn't come into the house until after-"

Brandon was interrupted again as Mariana asked a question.

"Wait did mom have _her_ gun? Was it like on TV, like when the police corner the guy and tell him to 'drop the gun dirtbag'?"

Mariana put on a tough voice as she did her best impression of a police officer, a look of excitement on her face that Brandon didn't share.

He sighed.

"No it wasn't like on TV, can you guys just let me finish?"

He looked at his brother and sister who both nodded their heads.

"Thank you. Yes, mom had her gun, and so did my dad, but the guy was completely wasted and he was shouting at Callie and it was really intense and he was waving the gun in her face and yelling and then he just shot her."

Neither Mariana or Jesus spoke.

"And then mom shot _him_."

He looked between the younger two and waited for them to say something.

"Wait so Callie was _shot_? Like actually shot? With a gun?"

Jesus was completely shocked. He thought maybe she'd gotten hit in the head or something, he knew doctors got weird about head injuries, he hit his head on the curb when he fell off his skateboard once and they'd made him stay in the hospital overnight and woken him up every hour to check for concussion.

He'd just figured thats what they were doing to Callie, he hadn't thought she'd been so badly hurt.

"Yeah with a gun."

Brandon was patient with his brother's questions, he'd been shocked too when he'd seen Callie on the kitchen floor.

"Wait is mom okay? Did she get shot too?"

Mariana knew that cops were supposed to protect people and her mom was probably the most protective person she'd ever known, especially when it came to kids, she couldn't imagine Stef just standing by and letting Callie get hurt.

Brandon hesitated.

He had been in the room when everything happened, but between his dad and the foster father, his view of his mom and Callie had been obstructed.

His eyes had been glued to his mom and he could tell she was trying to get into the room, but Callie had been holding her back.

He thought maybe he had seen wrong, but just as her foster father had fired, Brandon swore he saw Callie push his mom out of the way.

It didn't make any sense though, Callie didn't even like his mom, she certainly didn't trust her enough to tell her about Jude but Brandon was almost positive she had saved his mom's life.

He couldn't talk to Lena about what he's seen because he knew she had enough on her plate, but he could talk to his siblings.

"Mom's fine, she didn't get shot, she's okay"

He was quick to reassure his sister, he could tell she was starting to panic.

"Actually, I think Callie might have.. You know.. "

He didn't know how to say it, didn't know how to tell them that the girl they barely even knew had saved their mom's life.

"She sort of covered mom. From the bullet I mean, she kind of pushed mom out of the way so she wouldn't get shot."

His statement was again met by silence.

Neither of the twins knew what to think.

Jesus was confused. He couldn't understand why Callie would have done that, why she would have protected a cop, didn't she know that's what cops were supposed to do?

"Wait bro are you sure? She was definitely meant to push mom out of the way? Mom didn't just fall or something?"

Brandon nodded his head, understanding his brother's need for confirmation.

"Yeah I'm telling you, one minute, Callie's blocking the door and not letting mom in, and the next, Callie had slammed mom into the doorframe, pushing her out of the way!"

Brandon was relieved to find his own confusion mirrored back to him by Jesus, he didn't understand it either.

Both boys looked at each other, neither able to come up with an explanation for Callie's actions.

Mariana finally broke the silence.

"She saved mom's life."

Her words were quiet and both of her brothers looked up at hearing the tears in her voice.

She finally looked at them, her eyes swimming as she tried to blink the moisture away.

"I was so m-mean to her and she saved my mom's life"

She stuttered slightly as she spoke, her tears finally spilling down her cheeks.

She's asked Callie if she was going to meet her pimp and the girl had been going to rescue her baby brother.

Jesus reached across the table and held his twin's hand.

"Mari, its okay, she's going to be okay."

He looked sideways at Brandon.

"Right?"

Suddenly he wasn't so sure, a gunshot wound had to be pretty serious, but Brandon didn't seem too worried.

"Yeah no, she's gonna be fine, she was talking and everything and she was just shot in the shoulder, she's gonna be fine."

Even as he said it, he didn't fully believe his words.

He quickly changed the subject.

"Alright so we should get going, Jude's at the hospital as well, he fell off the couch and hit his head on the coffee table so mama took him in this morning"

The twins nodded at the information, both had been wondering where the young boy was.

Mariana stopped them as they all stood to leave.

"Wait! We should get mom some clothes, and like her toothbrush and stuff right? So she can get changed.. I mean she's been in the hospital all night, so maybe.."

She trailed off, unsure of what she could do but just wanting to be helpful somehow.

"Yeah that's a really good idea! Uh maybe we should take Callie some clothes as well, I don't know when she'll be getting out but she'll need them eventually."

Brandon picked up the idea, grateful for Mariana's forward thinking, he hadn't even considered clothes for either of them.

"Should we take something for Jude as well? Did he he cut himself? He might have blood on his clothes.. "

Jesus jumped on board as well, wanting to help too.

"Uh I'm not sure, but it couldn't hurt to bring him something in case right?"

Both twins nodded.

"Okay so Mariana, you get stuff for mom, Jesus, you get Jude's things, and I'll get Callie's.

The siblings raced off to complete their designated tasks, all three of them just glad to be doing something useful.

The boy's decided to take both Callie and Jude's whole bags, rather than going through and picking items out. They didn't know the two well enough yet and they didn't want to invade their privacy.

Mariana met them at the bottom of the stairs with Stef's bag that was almost the same size as Callie and Jude's put together.

She rolled her eyes at her brothers' raised eyebrows.

"What? She might want choices!"

She huffed as they smirked at her.

"Weren't you the one in a hurry five minutes ago? Let's move, come on!"

She brushed past Brandon and punched Jesus in the shoulder as he snickered at her.

Brandon smiled for the first time that morning and followed his brother and sister out to the car.

They all got in and put their seat belts on, Mariana sulking because Jesus called the front seat.

Brandon pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to his mama.

_Woke the twins up, weren't happy at first but we're on our way now, what room is Callie in?_ _x_

He turned on the car and backed out of the driveway, pausing in the street as Lena replied to his message.

_Thank you honey, room 6029, see you soon, drive safe! x_

Brandon put his phone in the cup holder between the seats and started driving towards the hospital.

No one spoke for the first few minute, each trying to process everything they'd heard or witnessed.

It was Mariana who finally broke the silence.

"Do you think Callie and Jude will stay with us? Or will moms send them away?"

The question had been on everyone's mind, but no one had wanted to ask.

"I don't know. I guess Jude will stay with us for a while, at least until Callie's out of the hospital, but then I don't know.."

It was Brandon who answered, his voice unsure as he tried to predict his mothers' actions.

"Well I mean, she's only in hospital because she got shot right? And if she got shot saving mom, then don't we kind of owe her? Like a lot? Mom could have died if Callie hadn't been there"

Jesus was trying to rationalise a way for Callie to stay with them, he felt for her, he knew how bad the foster system was, and how it was even worse when you had to watch out for someone other than yourself, like he'd had to do for Mariana and Callie'd had to do for Jude.

People thought he didn't pick up on things like that, but he had seen how sad and worried Callie had looked when they'd first met, and how she was trying to hide it behind insults and rudeness.

She seemed to have had it bad, and she'd probably had it worse than him and Mariana because she'd been in the system longer and she was older.

"Yeah but mom wouldn't have even been in danger if Callie hadn't been there in the first place."

Mariana poked her head between the two front seats as she pointed out the obvious.

She knew it sounded like she blamed Callie, but it was easier than blaming herself.

She had told Callie how to get to the metro and she had told her how to sneak out without getting caught.

On some level, Mariana had been glad that Callie was leaving, she was scared that despite what the older girl had said, she would in fact nark on her about selling Jesus's pills.

But after hearing that the teen risked her life to save someone she didn't even know, Mariana realised that Callie probably wasn't the kind to nark on anyone, no matter how mean they'd been.

"What was she supposed to do Mari? She didn't want to get sent back to jail and she couldn't just leave her brother there with that psychopath! I would have done the same thing if it had been you in that house."

Mariana sat back at hearing her brother's words. She believed him.

Family was everything to the two of them, they'd spent so long wishing for one and they'd been lucky enough to find it in the Fosters.

Callie had saved a part of their family and Mariana knew there was no way they'd be able to thank Callie for that.

"I hope they get to stay, I'm sure moms will listen to us if we say we want them wont they? She _saved_ mom, that has to count for something"

Mariana looked at the back of both her brother's heads, waiting for their answers.

Brandon turned into the hospital entrance, parking the car and turning off the engine before shifting to face his sister.

"I want them to stay, Callie saved our mom, she saved all of us."

Brandon's words were firm and both he and Mariana looked expectantly at Jesus, waiting for his answer.

"Hey I think it would be cool, I'd get a big sister and a little brother, then I have one of everything!"

He smiled at the thought, he'd have a big brother and sister, and a little brother and sister. He didn't mind being in the middle.

His tone turned more serious.

"She saved our mom."

He repeated his brother and sister's words for emphasis, none of them would be forgetting them anytime soon.

As the siblings got out of the car and walked towards the hospital, they were all thinking of ways they could convince their moms to let Callie and Jude stay, ways they could help out until Callie got better and ways they could make the two feel comfortable and at home.

As they got in the elevator and Brandon hit the button for Callie's floor, they all shared a look and smiled; they were on the same page.

Callie saved their family, the least they could do was save hers.

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**_Finally done;) So please let me know what you think, i would love to hear from all the readers who follow and read this story but dont usually review, i just wanna know your thoughts and feelings:) Thank you to all my regular reviewers, i love you all and i hope i tell you all how grateful i am to get your reviews! _**

**_Also, let me know what you prefer, two short chapters in two days, or one chapter, twice as long, every two days? _**

**_Review review review :))))) ~BC xo_**


	11. The whole family

**_This story has 10 chapters and 210 reviews. That is like an average of 21 reviews per chapter! I am just so blown away by the incredible support you have all shown me and this fic! Your reviews force me to write even when i'm super busy because i love hearing what you guys think and i want to get another chapter up as fast as possible so you can tell me what you think of the next one and its just a never ending circle! So thank you; this chapter is for you all: _**

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Lena and Jude were walking down the corridor towards Callie's room when the elevator at the end of the hall opened revealing Brandon and the twins.

Brandon's eyes immediately found Lena's and then flicked down to where her had was linked with Jude's, relieved that the boy had warmed up to at least one of his moms.

He smiled as he made his way over to them, knowing Jesus and Mariana would follow him.

"Hey mama"

He leaned in and wrapped one arm around her in a quick hug, which she returned as best she could with Stef's bagel still wedged under her arm and her phone in her hand.

She didn't let go of Jude's hand. She knew she had a lot to prove to the boy and making sure he felt loved and safe was the best way to start doing that.

"Brandon, I'm glad you guys are here."

The teen let go of Lena and grabbed his mom's bagel from her, Callie's bag in his other hand.

"Hey buddy, how's your head?"

Brandon smiled at Jude and was surprised when the younger boy smiled back.

"Its alright, they didn't even give me real stitches this time! Just the sticky strips!"

Jude seemed to be almost excited about his injuries, just like a normal twelve year old boy and Brandon was glad for that, the kid was the total opposite of the one Brandon had seen last night.

Brandon didn't miss Jude's slip as he said 'this time' implying that once before he _had_ needed stitches and as he locked eyes with his mama he realised she had heard it too.

"Hi mama, hi Jude!"

Mariana too leaned in to hug Lena and then smiled down at Jude, not sure if she should touch him or not.

"Hey Miss Thing, whatcha got there?"

Lena nodded her head towards the large bag in her daughters hand.

Mariana held it up as she answered.

"I brought some clothes for mom, figured she might want to shower or at least get changed into something clean. The guys brought Jude and Callie's stuff as well, we weren't sure if they would need anything.."

She trailed off as she pointed to the bags her brothers were carrying.

Lena smiled at her three kids, her heart swelling with pride at how thoughtful they'd all been.

"Thanks guys, I'm sure they will appreciate it"

Brandon and the twins smiled back and shrugged.

"We just wanted to do something useful"

Jesus tried to wave off his mama's thanks, what they had done was nothing compared to what Callie had done and he wasn't about to feel proud for just carrying in a tiny backpack.

Jesus looked at Jude properly for the first time, he could see the boy looked a little shellshocked around his new foster siblings and Jesus empathised, he remembered what it was like at a new place with new people. At least he'd always had Mariana there, Jude was flying solo at the moment and didn't look too happy about it.

"Hey is this your backpack?"

He shrugged the bag off his shoulder and showed it to Jude.

Jude looked up at the older boy and nodded his head.

"Its Skippy right? I used to have this backpack!"

He smiled at Jude trying to make a connection with the younger boy, show him that they weren't that different.

His effort was rewarded when Jude smiled back at him.

"Cool!"

Just one word, but Jude looked more comfortable already and for _that_, Jesus could be proud of himself.

"Can we see Callie?"

Lena was surprised that it was Mariana who asked after the older girl, she'd expected Brandon to be eager to see her, but Mariana hadn't shown any real interest in Callie since she moved in.

"Yeah, sure, come on guys, we'll take you to her room."

Lena smiled at her kids and squeezed Jude's hand as she lead her family to room 6029.

She paused when they got to the door, turning to face the twins.

"Guys I don't know what Brandon told you, but Callie was shot last night by her foster father. She's okay, but her arm is in a sling and she looks kind of tired and pale, but she's fine, she's recovering."

The twins both nodded as Mariana spoke.

"Brandon told us what happened, he told us _everything_"

She stressed the last word and Lena nodded. The twins knew that Callie had protected Stef.

"Okay, so just, you know, be gentle. No being loud or nosy alright? She's had a rough couple of days."

She had said similar words to the twins the night Callie came to stay with them, but the statement still held.

All three kids nodded and Jude looked anxious to get back to his sister so Lena quietly opened the door and guided them in.

Stef had been watching over Callie as she slept but had not fallen asleep herself. Her mind was too full of everything Callie had told her, everything Callie _hadn't _told her as well.

When she'd heard Lena talking to, she assumed, their children outside the room, Stef had carefully slipped herself out from under the sleeping teen.

She had a feeling Callie wouldn't have wanted to look so needy and vulnerable in front of the others. Stef didn't think she did at all, but the girl held herself to a very different standard so Stef moved to the chair beside her bed, maintaining her hold on Callie's hand so as not to break her promise to the teen.

Callie looked so peaceful in sleep that Stef could hardly believe that the girl had been so badly hurt. Aside from the bruising on her face and the split in her lip, she looked like any other teenager and that reassured Stef, Callie would be able to get through this, she was stronger than her past.

She turned to face her family as they walked through the door, putting her finger to her lips to signal for them to be quiet, he head tilting towards the sleeping Callie on the bed.

Jude looked at his sister carefully. She seemed to actually be asleep and that shocked him.

He could see the slight swelling around her eyes, it wasn't obvious and no one else would have ever noticed, but Jude knew his sister better than anyone or anything and he could see she had been crying.

That made two strange things.

Callie never cried in front of anyone except him, and even that she only did on the really bad days. More than that though, Callie never slept when there was someone else in the room.

Sleeping made them vulnerable and left them unprotected. Callie never slept until she was certain that no one else was awake, and even then, she slept very lightly and was woken by the quietest noises, even Jude's breathing.

She hadn't woken when they'd entered the room and that made Jude feel good and bad at the same time.

He knew that she had to be really hurt if she would let herself sleep this deeply but he also knew that she had to at least kind of trust Stef if she'd fallen asleep while the cop was still in the room, she'd also probably let the cop see her cry and Jude didn't know how to feel about that.

He had now reached his sister's bedside, Stef's coffee still gripped in his hands as he watched Callie's chest rise and fall with her breathing.

"I can hear you thinking."

Callie kept her eyes closed as she spoke, but a tiny smile ghosted across her face.

Jude smiled at her even though she couldn't see him, she would hear it in his voice, she was good like that.

"No you can't, you can hear me breathing!"

He'd wised up to her tricks sometime during Six, she'd said she could tell when he was awake because she could hear him thinking, but on a really bad night, she'd told to pretend to be asleep and when he'd panicked because he didn't know how, she'd told him that they could tell by his breathing if he was asleep and that's how she'd always known.

Callie opened her eyes and smiled at her brother but didn't say anything.

She looked around the room at the rest of the fosters and smiled hesitantly, not really sure what to expect from them.

She'd woken up when Stef got off the bed, and a part of her had almost panicked as she felt the blonde leave, but she had quickly calmed when heard the woman sit back in the plastic chair, their hands still joined.

She'd heard the family come in but had taken a moment to just get herself together, prepare herself as best she could for whatever was about to happen.

"Hi Callie, how're you feeling honey?"

It was Lena who spoke first, her eyes soft and full of worry as she regarded the teen from her spot behind her partner, her hands resting on Stef's shoulders.

Callie shrugged her good shoulder and shared a look with Jude.

"I've been worse"

She'd meant to sound reassuring but as soon as the words left her lips she realised they'd been anything but.

The Fosters just looked shocked, the identical looks on all of their faces would have almost been funny if Callie hadn't seen the multitude of emotions behind them.

Lena and Mariana's eyes both held sympathy and horror at the fact that she had been through something worse than a gunshot.

Brandon and Stef both looked furious and Callie swore they seemed to be almost protective over her and it was a strange feeling, seeing people want to protect her for a change.

She would never let it happen, of course, but she appreciated the thought.

Jesus, however, looked at Callie with a kind of understanding behind his eyes, like he knew something and Callie wanted to squirm under his gaze. She didn't want to be pitied, but she especially didn't want to be understood.

She wanted to break the tension she had accidentally created so she spoke again.

"I'll be fine, really, its not as bad as it looks."

She didn't know why she felt the need to reassure this family, but seeing them look at her like they had been had made her feel strange, like she was somehow hurting them and she didn't like that at all.

"We brought your clothes, we weren't sure when you'd be getting out, but at least you'll have them when you do"

He held up her blue duffel bag as if to prove he'd really brought it and Callie had to smile at him and his attempt at starting a conversation.

"Thanks, I really appreciate it."

He nodded his head and the room was plunged back into silence.

"Oh, this is for you, and Lena got your bagel as well!"

Jude held the coffee out to Stef, looking her straight in the eye as he did.

Callie told him that eye contact showed respect and that you weren't afraid. He never made eye contact with foster parents for those reasons.

Callie did, but that was because she was trying to be brave, trying to show them they didn't scare her and it had almost never ended well for her.

Jude didn't like cops, but neither did Callie and she seemed to like this one, and so did Lena and Brandon so he could too.

Stef smiled at him and reached for the cup.

"Ah thank you sweets! You are officially my favourite!"

She winked at Jude and he smiled at her words, joking as they were, they made him feel special and Callie was relieved at how relaxed Jude was around the cop.

"Hey what about us?"

Mariana looked at Stef with mock hurt on her face.

"What did you bring me Miss Thing?"

Stef raised her eyebrow at her daughter, her smile light and teasing.

"I brought you clothes, thought you might want to get changed!"

Mariana smiled sweetly at her.

"Hmm, you're a close second then"

Stef winked at Mariana too and the overall atmosphere of the room seemed to lighten at the easy banter.

"So did they say when we could bust you outta here?"

Jesus was subtly trying to imply to both the moms and Callie that he wanted the older girl to come home with them. He only hoped the three women had caught his use of the word 'we'. _  
_

Mariana picked up on her twin's plan and added to it.

"Yeah coz breakfast this morning with just three people was lame and I definitely need another girl now that there are _three_ boys in the house."

She too was subtly trying to include Callie and Jude but making it sound like they expected the siblings to come home with them.

Stef fought a smile as she felt Lena's hands squeeze her shoulders.

They knew what the twins were up to and both were overjoyed. Both kids were really trying to make Jude and Callie feel like part of the family and the moms could not be happier.

"Uh, I actually haven't even seen the doctor since I woke up so I don't know."

Callie was confused by the twins' words. It sounded like they just expected her to go home with them, two days ago she hadn't thought they'd even liked her, she wouldn't have blamed them after the things she said at the dinner table, but now they were being really nice and wanting her to stay with them and it made her heart hurt.

She really wanted to stay with them.

Stef spoke next.

"Mm, that's a really good point, we need to talk to the doctor!"

She stood from her chair and turned to face all the uninjured kids.

"Okay guys, I'm sure I saw a gift shop downstairs, why don't you guys go and have a look around and I'll text you when we're finished talking to the doctor alright?"

The older three nodded but Jude was looking at Callie, not Stef.

"Go on, it'll be like twenty minutes max and I'll be here when you get back, I'm not exactly going anywhere buddy"

Callie smiled at Jude and he nodded at her instructions and reassurance.

Lena and Stef shared a look. It would be a while before Jude listened to anyone other than his sister, but the women were prepared to put in the work.

"Alright come on lets go"

Brandon put his arm around Jude and nodded at Callie's grateful smile, the boys followed the twins out and then only the three women were left.

"Okay I'm just gonna change my clothes and then I'll go find a doctor. I can't believe he hasn't come by already!"

Stef shook her head as she grabbed her bag off the floor where Mariana had left in and went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her and leaving Lena and Callie alone.

"Thank you"

Lena's voice was quiet but her words shocked Callie.

"Thank you? For what? For taking your son and your wife into a house where a drunk guy pointed a gun at them? Yeah you're welcome, anytime."

Her voice was sarcastic, but Lena could hear the surprised undertone. Callie didn't think that what she'd done was worthy of thanks and Lena hated that.

"Stef said you pushed her out of the way, she said she would probably have been shot in the chest if you hadn't moved her."

Lena gauged the teen's reaction as she finished speaking and was bewildered to find none on the girl's face. No emotions, nothing.

"I did and it probably would have."

Callie's voice was even as she confirmed Lena's statement, her blank emotionless mask beginning to crack under Lena's soft gaze.

"Thank you for saving her life."

It was the first time Callie had heard it put like that. Saving her life. And she didn't like it, it wasn't true.

"I didn't save anyone."

Callie was adamant. She wasn't going to be thanked for something she hadn't done.

Lena could see that the girl didn't fully understand what she had done, how much she had saved and as much as she wanted to shake Callie for her actions, she also wanted to make the girl see how big a deal it was.

"She would have been hit in the chest and she probably would have died. You saved her life Callie, you did that."

Callie shook her head again at Lena's words. She needed to stop saying it like that, _you saved her life_, she hadn't, thats not how it was.

"I'm the one he was aiming for. Stef should never have been there and her life should never have been in danger so I made sure it wasn't."

Her life wouldn't have needed saving in the first place if it weren't for Callie, so by pushing Stef out of the way, Callie just cancelled out the fact that she'd put Stef in danger. They were even.

Lena shook her head at the teen, growing the tiniest bit frustrated at the stubborn girl.

"Callie, whatever you think, you _did_ save Stef's life, and I am so grateful that she's alive, but it is not okay for you to do that. You are important Callie and your life is worth the same as Stef's okay? And its not okay for you to just trade yours for hers, you could have been killed."

The teen took a breath and then replied.

"I didn't save Stef's life! Stop making it sound like I did such a good thing! It was my fault that she was even there in the first place, it was my fault that she was in danger so I didn't save her life, if she hadn't been there, I would have gotten hurt, the fact that she was there didn't change that, it was always going to be me. I didn't save her life. I just made sure that she didn't get hurt like she wouldn't have gotten hurt if she hadn't shown up."

Callie blew out a breath. Her speech hadn't made any sense to her. Her head was all muddled up and she couldn't get the explanation out properly.

She would have to try again when she as less tired.

She closed her eyes and felt Lena's hand touch her own.

"Callie, what you did was incredibly dangerous and maybe we are never going to agree on it, but you saved my family and I promise you I am going to do everything I can to save yours okay?"

Her eyes were still soft, but there was a determination there as well that Callie hadn't seen before.

She nodded her head, all the words suddenly vanished from her brain.

Lena smiled reassuringly at the teen, she had meant every word. She was going to save this girl and her little brother from the foster system and probably themselves as well.

It was clear that Callie tended to blame herself for a lot that was out of her control and while she didn't want to upset the teen by discussing it right that second, Lena knew they would have to talk about it at some point.

Stef walked out of the bathroom at that moment in a pair of faded jeans and a light pink button down shirt.

"I'll go get the doctor."

Lena stood up as her partner walked in, she knew she would need a minute before they went over Callie's injuries. She was sure there was more damage than meets the eye and she had a horrible feeling that she would hate the stories behind the wounds they were about to uncover.

Stef smiled knowingly at her partner.

"Okay love, we'll be here."

She took her seat by Callie's bed and looked between the other two women in the room. She could see that something had been said between the two but she knew she and Lena would talk about it later so she didn't press either brunette for information.

Lena walked out of the door and walked towards the nurses station to ask them to page Callie's doctor. Her pulse racing as she tried to prepare herself for what she was about to find out.

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**_Okay so that was the first chapter with all seven of them in. I was quite happy with how it turned out, but please dont hesitate to tell me if you disagree! Next chapter will be callie's injuries, past and present, let me know if there is any particular injury or story you want brought up later, because now is probably the time for it and it will be harder to write it in later if there are no reports of it up next!_**

**_If there is a doctor reading this, please let me know, i would love to pick your brains about abused children and the sorts of injuries they have. _**

**_Please review :) It makes me happy! I love you all, happy friday people :) ~Em xxx_**


	12. The Broken Girl

**_Pronouns will be the death of me. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter! I will reply to them all, just been having some technical difficulties at the moment, but i appreciate them so much and will reply every one of them! I am not a doctor, i don't know what im doing but here is the doctor scene, enjoy. _**

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Callie and Stef sat in silence as they waited for Lena to return with the doctor, both trying to compartmentalise their emotions.

Stef was worried about how Lena would react to everything they were about to hear, Stef herself was somewhat prepared, having already seen many of the scars the teen had.

Lena was such a good mother and had such a kind heart and the blonde knew that her partner would internalise all of the pain that Callie had undoubtably been through.

It was going to be awful for all three of them but Stef was trying not to think about herself. She didn't want to acknowledge her own fears because she knew that the moment she did, they would pull her under and drown her, she was so afraid of having her thoughts and guesses confirmed.

Callie was dreading the doctors visit for similar reasons. She hated people knowing anything about her past. She never told current foster families about previous families or what happened in previous homes. Part of the reason was that she didn't want their pity, but a bigger part was that she didn't want to give them any ideas.

That being said, she had already shared a lot of her past with Stef. She _had_ never and _would_ never disclose that much information again, though she very much doubted the women would hurt her, she still didn't want their pity.

Nobody was ready when Lena finally reentered the room with Dr Morgan right behind her.

"Hi Callie, my name is Dr Morgan and I performed the surgery on your shoulder to remove the bullet."

Dr Morgan's voice was cheerful and did not reveal any of the tiredness Callie could see on his face.

Callie smiled politely at him but did not speak as he moved to stand on her other side and Lena moved to stand next to Stef.

"The bullet did not hit any bones or major blood vessels and it remained intact so we were able to remove the entire bullet without complications and with the help of physical therapy, you should regain complete mobility in the arm."

The doctor smiled at Callie as he finished speaking and the teen could hear Lena breath a sigh of relief at hearing that there would be no permanent damage.

"How long will it take to heal? Like how long will it be before I can use my arm properly?"

Callie's voice was strong as she questioned the doctor and Stef was impressed by the teen's no-nonsense tone.

Dr Morgan cleared his throat before answering.

"Normally after undergoing shoulder surgery, patients can take anywhere from one to six months to regain their complete strength, but in your case, there are other factors that will complicate the healing process."

The doctor paused and let the information sink in before he continued to speak.

"In addition to the obvious bullet wound to the left shoulder, your left elbow has been hyperextended, which simply means that it has been bent back further than it should have been. Though none of the bones that make up the elbow are broken, the ligaments have been damaged and there is a good deal of swelling around the joint"

As Callie listened to her injuries being described, she became aware of the pain in her elbow. It had been sore, but her whole arm felt like it was on fire so she hadn't noticed that her elbow was particularly tender until the doctor had brought it up.

"We have strapped the elbow in a compression bandage and the arm is already in the sling. At this time, I don't believe that the elbow will require physical therapy as no ligaments were torn, but we will revisit that once the swelling has gone down a bit more. The sling will have to stay on for at least the next three weeks for both the shoulder and the elbow injuries."

The doctor finished with a nod as he looked at Callie.

Stef and Lena had not spoken a word. Stef's eyes were on Callie and Lena's eyes were on Stef, all of them processing the information they had received.

Stef felt physically ill. The hyperextended elbow was entirely her fault. She had pushed hard against the teen's arm when she had tried to get into the house the previous night. It made her sick to think that she had caused the teen more pain.

Stef felt no better than the foster parents that had come before her. She had hurt the teen just like they all had.

Lena saw the guilt on her partner's face and made a note to ask her about it. She hadn't had a chance to talk to Stef in the last twenty four hours and she was feeling strangely disconnected from the love of her life.

They usually talked all the time, told each other about their day, what the kids were getting up to, normal things, but Stef had been in the hospital all night and Lena had been home with the the children and the two hadn't had a chance to really hash out what went down in the foster house before Callie was shot.

Callie remained silent, highly aware of the other two women in the room listening carefully to everything that was wrong with her. She knew her body, could feel the stabbing pain in her ribs and knew the doctor wasn't quite finished listing her injuries.

"The physical therapy required for your shoulder will also have to wait at least six weeks while your ribs heal."

The doctor pulled a set of X-rays out of the file Callie hadn't noticed he was carrying, walking over to the light box on the wall at the foot of her bed as he spoke.

He continued to talk as he switched the light box on.

"You can in this X-ray that this rib and this rib are broken. They were both clean breaks and neither caused a tear or puncture in the lung"

He pointed at the first two ribs on the left side of the X-ray, indicating the breaks as he described them.

"It was likely that these ribs were initially fractured by a hard blow and then the weakened bones were broken by the same force that caused the hyperextension of the elbow."

Stef felt like she had been kicked in the ribs as she heard the probable cause of Callie's broken ones.

_She_ had broken them. _She_ had done that.

Lena could see the tension in the blonde's body and moved to stand behind her, her hands on Stef's shoulders in a show of support.

"These two ribs here and here, show hairline fractures, also likely caused by a hard blow. There are signs of remodelling on nearly all of the ribs, indicating multiple fractures and numerous breaks, all occurring within the last five or six years."

The doctor's voice was quiet as he finished. He came across abused children far too often for his liking, but this particular teen looked like she'd been Mike Tyson's punching bag. He was amazed that she'd never punctured a lung as the sheer number or broken ribs was astounding.

Callie closed her eyes at the doctor's words. She couldn't look at Stef and Lena, she didn't want to see their reaction after hearing that last comment.

She still remembered every single hit, kick and punch she'd taken to the ribs. She even remembered the reasons she'd gotten most of them.

Though she wasn't about to share any of it with Stef or Lena.

If Callie _had_ been looking at Stef, she would have seen nothing on the blonde's face. Stef shut down completely as the doctor spoke.

_Multiple fractures and numerous breaks_

The words echoed in her head and grew louder and louder with each passing second.

It was bad enough that she'd hurt the teen so badly, that she'd been the cause of nearly all of the teen's pain but it was worse that she wasn't even the first.

Stef was one of them, the countless other foster parents that had beaten and broken the brown eyed girl in front of her.

She had done exactly what they'd done, she'd hurt Callie and that hurt _her_.

Stef couldn't deal with the force of the emotions coursing through her so she cut them off, blanked her mind and her face, clearing herself of all feelings until she was in a place where she could break down and handle them.

Dr Morgan could sense the discomfort in the room but it was his duty as the child's doctor to report on her condition, despite how much it seemed to be hurting the three women.

"The deep tissue bruising that covers nearly all of the left side of the ribcage and the majority of the right as well is cause for some concern. As I am sure you are aware Callie, the pain is quite extreme and given the location of the bones, there is no way we can strap them or immobilise them so it will be up to you to ensure that you move as little as possible so as not to strain the intercostal muscles."

He was looking carefully at Callie as he directed his words at her, making sure that she understood that only she could stop herself from hurting.

"How long until they heal?"

Callie's voice had not lost its strength and Lena admired the brave girl who seemed to be taking it all in her stride.

"The bruising should clear up in six to eight weeks, the same goes for the fractured ribs. The breaks may take longer to repair themselves, but you will have to be extremely careful about twisting and turning as well as bending and lifting because not only will it be horribly painful, but if you aggravate the broken bones and cause them to shift then you could do serious damage to your lung"

His eyes were severe as he regarded Callie, as though he knew she wouldn't follow his orders to be careful.

He was right, Callie had broken ribs before, she knew exactly how much mobility she had and she knew how much pain she could take.

Her overall list of injuries was a bullet to the shoulder, hyperextended elbow, two _broken_ ribs, two _fractured_ ribs, a host of _bruised_ ribs and a splitting headache.

Callie was not worried about the pain, she had become quite accustomed to the feeling and had an extremely high threshold for it.

It was the immobility that had her panicking, the fact that she wouldn't be able to defend herself or Jude against anyone or anything.

She had never been quite so defenceless. The last time she'd had broken ribs was four months before she was sent to juvie and while it had been painful, she'd still been able to protect her brother, she'd still had two arms that worked well enough and now she barely had one.

She knew she could probably lose the sling in a couple of days despite what the doctor said. She would be able to at least hold her useless arm in front of her and look like she was capable of using it.

She knew she wouldn't be able to hold Jude behind her as there was no way her shoulder was going to rotate like that, but he could hold onto the back of her shirt, or the belt loop on her jeans. They would make a plan, they always did.

Stef was still unresponsive, she could hear well enough but she would not process what she was hearing. She couldn't, not yet.

Lena squeezed her lover's shoulders, she could feel that something was wrong with Stef but there was nothing she could do for the time being except stand there and try not to cry as she listened to the doctor explain Callie's injuries.

Already Lena's eyes were filling with tears, she blinked rapidly to clear them as she looked at Callie. It was clear that the teen was deep in thought but there was a look of strong determination in her eyes.

Lena drew strength from Callie and hated herself for it because it was supposed to be the other way around. She was the adult, she was the one who was supposed to be strong, the teen should be looking to Lena for support, and yet the older woman was helpless to provide any.

Dr Morgan pushed forward, the three women were slowly crumbing in front of him but if he noticed, he didn't show it.

"There are also signs of remodelling on both the left and right clavicle bones that occurred two and three years ago respectively and there is evidence of a spiral fracture to the right radius as well as a clean break on the same bone, both of which also occurred approximately two years ago and were about four months apart."

The doctor closed the file he had been reading from and the room fell silent.

"Three years ago."

Callie's voice was steady, if not very loud.

"Sorry?"

The doctor stepped closer to Callie as he had not fully heard her.

"I broke my wrist three years ago, same time as my collarbone, three and a half months before I broke my arm."

Callie used the same emotionless voice Dr Morgan had used to describe her injuries, as if it would hurt less if there was no connection behind the words.

It didn't hurt any less, hearing the various breaks and fractures read out like a bunch of statistics was worse for Lena than if the teen had broken down and sobbed about them.

She could see Callie trying to distance herself from it all, like the teen was trying to pretend it hadn't been her X-rays they'd all just seen and the broken bones they'd just heard about hadn't all been hers as well.

Lena stopped trying to hold back her tears. She had broken one bone in her life, about a year after her and Stef had moved in together she'd tripped over one of Brandon's toys in the living room and put her arm out to stop her, breaking her ulna.

The pain had been mind numbing. She hadn't even cried, she'd just sat on the floor and cradled it for nearly ten minutes as the shock of the broken bone overcame her.

Stef had found her and coaxed her into the car and Lena had blacked out for the entire ride to the hospital though Stef swore she never lost consciousness, the pain had been that bad, it had been excruciating.

Callie had experienced that pain more times than Lena could count and she wasn't even sure that broken bones were the worst thing Callie had lived through.

"Your previous injuries seemed to have all healed well and there was no need to surgically correct any of the breaks. The ribs will heal on their own and in their own time, as long as you refrain from strenuous activity for the next six to eight weeks, I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to start physical therapy in about two months time."

The doctor finished up and walked to stand across the bed from Stef and Lena, the light box switched off.

"Callie will need a lot of help with day to day activities such as bathing and getting dressed as her left arm will have to remain immobile and she may have difficulty raising her right arm due to her ribs. A nurse will come by after lunch and talk you through redressing the incision site on her shoulder and one of you will have to change it each night to avoid an infection"

The doctor directed his words at Lena, who nodded her head and listened intently to his instructions.

"I understand, we will give her everything she needs until she recovers."

Her words were directed at Dr Morgan, but Lena's eyes were locked on Callie's.

The teen was surprised. Lena hd been adamant that her staying with the Fosters was only a temporary arrangement and despite the promises that Stef and Lena had both made, Callie didn't believe that the former agreement would hold true.

_You saved my family and I promise you I am going to do everything I can to save yours_

Callie remembered Lena's words from earlier that morning and as she stared back at the curly haired woman, Callie nodded her head.

She believed her.

Callie was worried about living with the Fosters, but also extremely relieved.

She was worried because somehow, Stef had managed to breach all of her defences and get Callie to share more of her past than she ever had before and she was worried that the blonde would get further inside, learn more about Callie and then not like what she saw and throw both her and Jude out.

It was the fear she experienced with each new foster family, but this time, it was a valid fear, Stef had already proven she could get through Callie's walls and the teen had never had to worry about that before. She also actually cared if she got to stay or not, she actually cared about these people and the safety they provided.

That was the relief; they were finally safe. She knew that as long as they were at the Fosters, Jude would be okay. She was in no physical shape to protect her baby brother from any sort of attack and she knew that she wouldn't have to in the Foster's house.

She wouldn't let anyone help her bathe, she could do it herself or she would get Jude to help her. He would be more than eager to do it, she so rarely asked for help and she knew it would make Jude feel good if he could do something for his big sister.

Stef and Lena didn't need to see her scars. They had heard all about her breaks and fractures, but they didn't need to know how much worse it got, she could shield them from that much at least.

Callie wished she could shield Jude as well, but her little brother, her shadow, had been there for it all. Every burn, bruise, cut, scrape, beating, whipping, and more, everything that Callie had sustained, Jude had witnessed.

There was no hiding her scars from her brother, but he was the only person who could possibly understand. He was the only one who got to see her so vulnerable. Not Lena and most definitely not Stef.

Not again.

"When can I get out of the hospital?:

Callie knew Jude would want to know, though she'd told him the Fosters were okay, she knew he would want her home with him, just in case.

"We need to keep you for a few days for monitoring, but you should be able to leave the day after tomorrow if all is well"

Dr Morgan seemed glad answer her question and to be done discussing her medical records. He hated dealing with abused kids and this had been no different.

Callie nodded at his answer before looking at Stef and Lena.

"I'm kind of tired now, could I maybe just sleep for a little while before the others get back?"

Callie sounded as tired as she looked and Lena nodded her head.

"Of course Love, we'll let them know that you need some rest, they'll be here when you wake up."

Lena had waited for Stef to answer but when she hadn't, Lena had jumped in.

Callie nodded her head and closed her eyes, effectively preventing any further conversation.

Stef remained frozen in her seat. She hadn't moved or spoken since Dr Morgan had entered the room and it was starting to scare Lena.

"I'll leave you to it, just press the call button if you need anything at all."

Dr Morgan bid his farewell and quickly left the room.

"Stef?"

Lena's voice was quiet as she shook her partner's shoulder and she received no response.

"Babe are you alright?"

Lena walked around her partner and squatted in front of her, looking into her lover's hazel eyes.

"Stef?"

Lena was getting more and more worried by Stef's behaviour.

"Stef!"

She raised her voice slightly, hoping to startle her partner out of her stupor and she was not disappointed.

Stef's eyes quickly filled with tears and her breathing became rapid and shallow.

"Lena"

Stef's voice was a choked gasp as she fought to keep from hyperventilating and Lena's heart broke as she watched the tough cop break down.

She quickly pulled Stef to her feet and ushered her out of Callie's room and into the neighbouring one, which she knew was empty as she'd passed it on the way to the cafeteria earlier.

"Honey what's the matter? What is it?"

Lena's eyes were full of concern and her voice thick with tears at seeing her love in such a state.

Stef said nothing as she all but collapsed in Lena's arms, sobs wracking her body as both women sank to the floor.

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**_And there it was. Next chapter will be Stef and Lena catching up to speed on each child and their thoughts/feelings/concerns. Anything you want to see, let me know. _**

**_**I am in desperate need of a beta to edit this story! I recently received a review indicating that there were many errors in this story and I would really love someone to point them all out to me as I know the chapters too well and don't read them properly! So please, if you've seen the punctuation errors and mistakes, send me a PM or review or something and point them out to me! I would very much like to improve this story!**_**

**_Please review :) It makes me write faster and I love hearing from you all! Even the short ones make my whole day and i love knowing if i'm going in the right direction or not! :) ~BC xo_**


	13. Its my fault

_**Okay this is the longest its ever take me to update but honestly this chapter was like nailing jelly to a tree. The characters bother me a little bit and I don't know that I got them quite right and I know it seems rushed, but I wanted to just space them out a little bit, leave room for more Lena/Stef conversations in future chapters and not just one long chapter where they get everything out. **_

_**Here we go:**_

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The couple sat on the floor in the corner of the empty hospital for nearly fifteen minutes before either were able to speak.

Stef had finally reached her breaking point, hearing Callie's medical history had been worse than she could ever have imagined.

Every broken bone the doctor mentioned left Stef feeling like all the air had been sucked out of the room. She couldn't breathe as she imagined the agony the teen must have felt with every break.

Stef knew that Lena had to be hurting just as much as her, but the dark woman hadn't seen the scars on Callie's torso. She hadn't heard the teen recount how her last foster father tried to _kill_ her with a fire poker.

Lena hadn't held the girl as she completely fell apart in the hospital bed and Lena hadn't been the cause of any of the teen's injuries.

Stef took a breath as she tried to wipe the tears off her cheeks. She could feel her partner's hand carding through her hair and with her head on Lena's chest, she could hear the brunette's heart racing and could feel the tense muscles in the dark woman's neck as she tried to be strong and not cry.

"I'm sorry"

They were the first words Stef had spoken since Lena had rushed her out of Callie's room.

Lena sighed as she wiped her own tears, her head hitting the wall they were leaning against.

"You don't have to be strong all the time Stef, its been a rough night, you're allowed to break down"

The brunette's voice was rough and croaky but Stef had heard her.

Stef shook her head as she sat up, mirroring Lena's position so that they both had their backs to the wall, arms looped around their bent legs.

"No I'm not. This is my fault Lena, she's hurt because of me."

Stef kept her eyes straight ahead, not daring to look at the woman sitting to her right.

"It wasn't anyone's fault but that stupid drunk man. You did everything right Stef, Callie made the decision not to let you into the house and I know you Stefanie Foster, I know you fought your hardest to get in there."

Lena's voice was gentle but firm, the same tone she used on the children when she needed to get a point across.

Stef knew that her partner was just trying to help, that she was trying to say what she thought Stef needed to hear but she'd done the exact opposite.

The blonde banged her head back against the wall hard enough that Lena felt the vibrations all the way down her spine.

"Thats exactly why its my fault! Her broken ribs? Her hyperextended elbow? They're my fault Lena, I did that to her. I hurt that little girl."

Stef had started off angry, but she quickly ran out of steam and her speech ended in a cracked whisper as a fresh wave of tears caused her voice to break.

Lena turned to look at her partner, her own eyes rapidly filling as she watched the strongest woman she knew, slowly fall apart.

"Oh Stef"

Her whispered words did nothing to soothe the blonde whose tears had slipped unhindered down her already stained cheeks.

"Stef look at me."

The cop didn't move. Her eyes were unfocused and Lena was sure she was reliving the entire night, trying to work out what she could have done differently.

"Stef!"

When her lover did not respond to a Lena's third attempt, she brunette reached out and squeezed the cop's right arm, trying to pull her back to reality.

She hadn't expected her partner to hiss in pain and yank her arm back, rubbing her bicep defensively.

"What happened to your arm?"

Lena's tears were immediately gone as she saw the love of her life in pain.

She didn't think Stef had been hurt, the cop hadn't mentioned anything but Stef always tried to protect Lena from things like that, minor injuries that she'd sustained and were easily covered.

Stef pulled up the sleeve of her light cotton shirt, wincing slightly as she revealed the dark purple bruise at the very top of her arm, just below her shoulder joint.

"When did you get that?"

Lena's tone was serious as she lightly ran her fingers over the dark purple mark marring her partner's usually flawless skin.

Stef shrugged Lena's hands off, she didn't deserve the love and concern she could see in her partner's eyes.

"What does it matter? Callie has about a hundred bruises that look just like it if not worse."

Her voice was bitter and she regretted the tone a little bit because she knew Lena had done nothing to deserve it, but since she had cried out all of her hurt and her fear, Stef found that all she had left was anger.

Anger at herself, at Callie, at the whole situation.

Mostly herself.

"Stef-"

Lena's words were cut off as the blonde abruptly stood up and began to pace the small room, her hand running through her hair as she walked back and forth, her agitation palpable all the way over on the floor where Lena remained sitting.

Stef moved quickly, muttering to herself under her breath, words that Lena couldn't make out but knew she wouldn't like if she could.

"Do you know what she said? When I asked her why she took that bullet for me? She said it was because she _deserved it. _She thinks she deserved everything that happened to her! Not just last night, but every night before it Lena. She said she deserved it all but Jude didn't and I didn't and thats why she protected me."

Stef stopped pacing to look at her partner as she spoke. She could feel her eyes burning at the memory of her conversation with the teen but she wouldn't cry.

Lena didn't say anything in response. There was nothing she really could say and it broke her heart that Callie believed she had deserved all of the abuse the doctor had told them about.

"She thinks she is worthless Love. She protects her brother like he's her child and she doesn't think she is worth anymore than a shield for him. She thinks that no one would care if she died and she's probably right! No one has ever given a damn about these kids and I hate it! I hate everyone who broke that beautiful girl and made her think she was nothing!"

Stef was practically shouting, her chest heaving as her eyes locked with Lena's. She hoped that her lover would be able to read all the emotions that she couldn't put into words.

Lena once again let her tears spill over, her hand moving to cover her mouth as she sat in shock at her partner's words.

The look of pure anger and hate she could see in the blonde's eyes scared her. In the ten years she had known and loved the cop, Lena had never once seen her so furious.

The brunette made no move to stand up. She could see that Stef just needed space and she was more than prepared to give it to her.

She wasn't, however, prepared to watch her lover torture herself like she could see the blonde was doing.

"Those kids have been through hell Stef. We know that. But they're here now, they're safe now, and we _do_ give a damn about them."

Lena was trying to show her partner the silver lining. Callie and Jude had experienced an awful lot for children of their ages, but they were with the Fosters now, no more foster father's with guns or foster mom's who withheld food. The siblings were safe and Lena needed Stef to focus on that.

"For now. What about the next house? What will happen then? Callie is stronger than most of the guys I work with but I don't know how much more she can take babe."

Stef looked lost and defeated and Lena couldn't sit and watch her any more.

She stood and pushed off the wall, walking to stand in front of the cop, linking their hands together.

"This girl Lena..."

Stef trailed off. She didn't have the words to describe what Callie was doing to her. The teen scared the crap out of her, she had absolutely no regard for her own safety, and she'd already proved she would give her life for some one else's and that truly terrified Stef.

The teen talked about her past injuries like they were no big deal and she hadn't even flinched as the doctor listed her various broken bones, like it was normal to be that beat-up, like it was nothing.

"She doesn't trust anyone. She protects everyone else like her life depends on it only she doesn't actually care about her own life, just everybody else's. I want her to trust me babe but I am no better than all the other bastards that broke her. I hurt her just like they did."

The self-loathing Lena could see in Stef's eyes as she spoke was horrible. The blonde looked utterly devastated and broken and Lena didn't know what she could say to make it better. She didn't know that it ever would be better. Stef acted like the tough cop, but deep inside, Lena knew she loved fiercely and deeply, and she hurt the same way.

Thinking she had injured a child would eat away at Stef until there was nothing left and Lena didn't know how to stop the guilt she could see bleeding into her lover's hazel eyes.

Stef's eyes filled with tears as she spoke again, her voice thick with emotion.

"She pushed me out of the way Lena, she saved my life and all I did was hurt her."

Stef sounded more dejected than Lena had ever heard her.

"You didn't mean to Love, you were trying to protect her and make sure she didn't get hurt. Its different Hon and Callie's a smart kid, she'll see the difference. You'll get through to her, and these kids are not going anywhere for a while. Not until we know they're going to be okay and they're going to a safe home."

Lena stroked her hand down the side of Stef's face, willing her to see that she was not the same as the other foster parent's who had beat the siblings and trying to promise her that no matter what, they were going to look after the two children who had evidently captured both mothers' hearts.

"It doesn't matter what I was trying to do, she can't even breathe without being in agony and whether I meant it or not, thats my fault."

Stef was emotionless as she spoke, she completely ignored the second half of Lena's statement, her voice sounding eerily like Callie's had as she'd corrected the doctor on the dates of her broken arm.

"Stef-"

Lena could see the blonde pulling away from her, retreating deep into her own mind as she tried to deal with the fact that she'd hurt a child. She wanted to say something to stop it, make Stef talk about her feelings instead of burying them away, but it was too late.

"I'm going to check on Callie, why don't you go check how the other kids are doing? Make sure Jude's okay?"

Lena sighed as Stef pulled away from her. There was so much they still had to talk about, but she could see that Stef was emotionally spent for the time being so she let her go.

"Sure, I'll go down now. We'll talk later?."

Stef turned and pecked Lena quickly on the lips.

"We'll talk later. I love you."

Though Stef wouldn't meet Lena's eyes as she spoke, the brunette knew her partner would keep her word, they would finish their conversation at some point.

"Love you too"

Lena followed Stef out of the room but continued down the corridor to the elevator as Stef went through Callie's door.

The dark woman shook her head at the similarities between her partner and the teenage girl that had captured her heart. Both seemed to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders and feel responsible for every bad thing that happened around them. They both hid their feelings and emotions and felt like they had to be strong for everyone else no matter how badly they were hurting.

Lena knew that Callie and Stef could be good for each other, they both needed someone who understood them and the dark woman could only hope that Stef would be able to get through to the teen or she feared she would lose them both the the guilt they were determined to carry around.

* * *

**_Okay so i'm thinking Callie/Stef for the next chapter, one final discussion about the shooting and who's to blame and stuff like that? Let me know what you want to see in it though as I'm kind of floundering here. I have plans for when Callie gets home, but I need to get there some how and I'm struggling! _**

**_Please let me know what you thought, and what you want to see next! I love hearing from you and I will try and update a lot quicker next time! _**

**_~BC xo _**


	14. I'll talk, you listen

**_Okay okay i know it has been ages! I actually meant to get so much done with this but i got so caught up in a story so we can just go ahead and blame obsessedatopia for this delay. _****_But then you could actually thank her because she actually helped me alot with this chapter :) _**

**_I'm not sure if I got Stef right in this one, I dont know what possessed me to start out writing such a detailed fic! this could have been a really simply narrative but i've started overanalysing stuff and written myself in a complete circle! Please let me know what you think though, and any way i could improve this or anything you wanna see!_**

* * *

Stef breathed a sigh of relief when she entered Callie's room and found the injured teen still soundly sleeping in her bed.

It was completely irrational and she knew the girl wasn't exactly going anywhere but Stef had felt uneasy having the brunette out of her sight.

She quietly walked over to the seat beside the bed and sank into it, resting her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands.

She needed to get herself in check, if not for her own sake then for Callie's, because one of them needed to be the grownup and she couldn't let the teen go on thinking it had to be her, Stef needed to step up and take control.

Normally control wasn't a problem for her, but everything about the teen was throwing her for a loop and while she was usually one step ahead of things, she found herself currently sprinting just to keep up with it all.

She took another cleansing breath and looked up at the sleeping child, running her hazel eyes over the purple bruise on her face, the sling encasing her left arm and the bandage wrapped around her right hand, Stef felt about as bad as Callie looked and she knew the teen felt worse.

The blonde hated seeing Callie so banged up, but she _really_ hated that it wasn't the first time the teen had been hurt like that and while Stef knew deep down that she was not the same as the low-lifes that had beaten the teen in the past, on the surface she was raw and only registered the fact that they'd caused Callie pain and so had Stef.

She wondered what Callie thought of her, had the teen expected Stef to hurt her? Had she seen this coming?

The cop rubbed her temples as she felt a migraine coming in, the emotional roller coaster finally starting to take a physical toll.

She organised her thoughts and went over everything she knew about the teen, all the facts she had gathered in the two days since they'd met her.

Callie valued her brother's safety above all else, her own life included, and Stef could understand that to a point.

She understood the need to protect the people you loved, it was what made her want to be a police officer in the first place.

She could have been a nurse or a doctor, she could have stitched people back together after they'd been hurt but instead she'd chosen to go a step further; she'd chosen to be the one to prevent people from getting hurt in the first place.

She of all people could understand the teen's protective instincts.

What she _couldn't_ understand, was how the teen could possibly be willing to sacrifice her own life for someone else's. Stef was a cop, it was something she had been trained to do, but it was not something she took lightly. Every time she went into a dangerous situation, she did so with extreme caution. She knew she had to make it out alive because Lena and the kids were counting on her to always make it home, she _had _to make it home to them.

Callie didn't seem to get that, Stef knew the teen loved her brother more than anything in the world, she knew that Callie would definitely die for the boy, but she didn't think the brunette had ever thought about what that would do to him, how much it would hurt him if the only person he had left in the world died trying to save him.

As Stef watched Callie's chest rise and fall slowly with each breath, she thought hard about the siblings' situation.

She remembered how devastated Jude had been when he'd first seen Callie in the hospital bed.

_I was really scared Callie_

Stef recalled his words and the fear he had spoken them with and she had to take a breath to stop herself from spiralling out of control again.

_I wasn't scared for me, I was scared for you._

As those words echoed through Stef's mind, she sat up straighter in her chair, her heart breaking all over again for the pair.

She didn't even think Callie was aware of what she was doing but she was probably hurting Jude as much as she was protecting him.

While Callie may have protected Jude from any physical torture, Stef knew that emotionally, that poor little boy was probably just as scarred as his sister and there was nothing the teen could have done to prevent it.

Every time Stef heard something new about the siblings' past, her chest got tight and it hurt.

It hurt Stef to _hear_ about the physical abuse Callie had sustained, but Jude'd had to _see_ it happen. The poor kid had probably watched his sister get hurt over and over again and had to live with knowing that she was hurting for him, she was taking the hits for _him_ and suddenly Stef didn't know which of them had had it worse.

Stef would much rather be in pain than watch some one she loved hurt -

Oh.

Oh Callie.

Stef sucked in a breath, tears springing to her eyes as that thought slammed into her.

She would rather take a beating than let someone she loved get hurt, and that was exactly what Callie had done and Stef felt like she couldn't breathe.

She stood quickly, the chair scraping loudly against the floor as it skidded backwards.

Stef had to distance herself from the teen, the urge to crush the girl to her chest and never let her go was overwhelming.

The teen had made an impossible decision and Stef couldn't wrap her head around it.

There was so much more to the girl than she could have ever thought.

Callie getting hurt physically, made Jude hurt emotionally, but were their places reversed, both siblings would still be hurting.

It was a lose-lose situation and Stef wanted to scream at the injustice of it all, a teenage girl had been forced to make a choice; her brother's physical wellbeing, or his mental wellbeing. She had chosen the one she'd be able to live with.

Stef knew that she would have made the same decision in her place.

As Stef stood in the middle of the room gazing at the sleeping teen, she felt the same connection with the girl that she'd been feeling since the ambulance ride and she could finally explain it to herself.

Callie reminded Stef of herself, their general characters were so similar and that thought just about killed Stef because she knew that there was no length she wouldn't go to to in order to ensure her family's safety and the teen had no doubt done the same.

She ran her hand through her hair as she considered her epiphany.

She knew Callie had been trying to make the best of the abysmal situation she'd been thrown into and as hard as she tried, she could not think of an alternative decision the teen could have made, she hadn't had a choice but to subject herself to beatings and torture in her quest to protect her brother.

Stef shook her head at the thought, she wanted to explain to the teen she needed to look out for herself as well, the girl needed to take care of herself or everything she was doing for Jude was for nothing.

She blew out a breath as she once again cast her gaze upon the sleeping brunette in the bed.

She needed a plan, she needed to line her thoughts up and work out how best to approach the subject with the teen.

She didn't even know if the girl wanted to see her again. Her and Callie had connected for a moment before the kids had arrived and before the doctor had dropped his various bombs, but since hearing her injuries, and more importantly, how badly Stef hurt her, the blond didn't think the teen would want anything to do with her.

That was the thought her mind kept swinging back around to. She had hurt Callie.

_She _had hurt Callie.

She had _hurt_ Callie.

She had hurt _Callie._

It didn't matter how many different ways she thought about it, her mind was stuck on a loop, the same four words playing over and over like a broken record.

She pushed the chair back towards the bed before walking around and sitting in it, her elbows on her knees, her head in her hands her body folding in on itself as her mind tortured her.

"Does your arm hurt?"

Stef startled so badly she very nearly fell out of her chair.

She had been so lost in her own head that she hadn't noticed the brown eyes that had been tracking her movements for the last two minutes or so.

"What?"

Stef was not used to being caught so off guard and her voice had shown as much. She'd thought she had time to think everything through, clear up the mess in her head and straighten everything out so that when she did talk to Callie she would know exactly what she wanted to say.

"Your arm."

Callie repeated herself and Stef could hear the strain in her voice, like the teen was desperately trying to sound better than she felt.

"Does it hurt?"

At the question, Stef immediately ran her left hand over her right bicep, cringing slightly as she put too much pressure on the fresh bruise below her shoulder joint.

"Yeah it does?"

Dammit. Stef had meant to take control of the conversation but her answer had sounded more like a question. The teen had her on her back foot and Stef was not comfortable with it at all.

Callie just nodded her head thoughtfully.

"It's probably gonna hurt for a couple of days if you hit the doorframe as hard as I did."

Callie's voice was very nonchalant as she raised an eyebrow at Stef.

The blonde stared at the teen, her mind racing to process everything the girl wasn't saying.

_If you hit the doorframe as hard as I did._

Now that she thought back, Stef had smacked the wooden doorframe so hard the night before that she'd had to bite her tongue to keep from crying out and the force with which Callie had thrown her would have had the girl slamming into the opposite wooden frame just as hard.

She locked eyes with Callie and tried to read the look she saw in the brown orbs.

The blond could sense the fear and distrust in the teen, but it wasn't directed at Stef, it looked more like a default setting for Callie.

What she couldn't see in the telling chocolate eyes was blame. There was no trace of the accusation or anger Stef had expected.

Stef leaned back as she realised what the teen was doing.

She was letting her off the hook. She was absolving her of blame and the cop didn't know how she felt about that.

A part of her was flooded with relief at the teen's simple statement and the subtext that came with it.

She'd hit the doorframe hard, her ribs had already been injured and that kind of jarring impact would have been more than enough to break the already compromised bones.

A different part of her was angry that Callie had been so quick to shift the blame to herself, she didn't want the teen to have to shoulder that weight and if she and Stef were as alike as the blonde thought they were, then this was just another way for the teen to protect the older woman.

She was trying to shoulder the blame for her injuries so that Stef didn't have to. She didn't want Stef to feel guilty.

Huh. That sounded vaguely familiar.

Stef thought back to fights she'd had with Mike, when she had still been trying to make it work.

Every time they fought Stef had walked away thinking it was her fault. It was her own way of protecting the husband she knew she should love but didn't, she was protecting him from feeling guilty.

Only now that she saw Callie doing the same thing did she realise what she'd done.

Stef took a breath as she realised that while she was trying to teach Callie things, the teen might just return the favour.

She blinked hard at the realisation as she felt Callie's eyes on her.

"Yeah, probably."

She nodded her head as though she agreed with the teen, but she didn't. She wouldn't let Callie think it was all her fault but Stef decided she needed to pick her battles and this was not to be one of them.

She ran her hand through her hair again, taking a breath to prepare herself before she started talking.

"Okay Callie we need to talk about what happens now."

She held her hand up as she saw Callie open her mouth to speak.

"Let me rephrase that. I will talk and you will just listen quietly okay?"

She raised an eyebrow expectantly at the teen, who nodded as she quickly closed her mouth.

"I know that you haven't had it easy and I can only imagine how bad your previous foster homes must have been."

She paused to gauge the teen's response, waiting for s sign that she'd gone too far but all she saw in the teen's eyes was curiosity, and the smallest flicker of hope.

"I understand that you had to protect your brother sweets, but what _you _need to understand is that you are every bit as important as he is. Some one should have been there to protect you too and I'm sorry that they weren't."

Stef's voice was very soft as she spoke, her head dipped slightly as she tried to regain eye contact with the teen who was suddenly very interested in the floor tiles.

"I know you feel responsible for him sweets, but you're his sister not his mother, I know you've been both for so long that you probably don't know _how_ to just be his sister, but that's what you are Love. Lena and I? We're the moms, and as long as you are under our roof, we are _your_ moms and Jude's moms and we will treat you both the same as Brandon, Jesus and Mariana."

Stef's voice was soft but firm. She was not reprimanding the teen, she was trying to gently lay down the law, take up a little of the weight on the teen's small shoulders.

She watched Callie absorb the information, but she wasn't sure the teen was really taking it to heart.

"Callie, last night, when you wouldn't let me into the house, you were trying to keep me from getting hurt yes?"

Stef looked questioningly at the teen who narrowed her eyes as she nodded the affirmative, wondering where Stef was going.

"Okay, but sweets, seeing you get hurt? That hurt me more. You understand that right?"

Stef was trying to get through to the teen and as she watched the emotions flash across Callie's face, she could see her words were hitting there mark.

"I know it must have hurt you when Mary hit Jude."

Her words were almost whispered as she spoke. The teen had shared the story willingly, but she didn't think Callie had ever planned on it being thrown back in her face like that.

Callie schooled her features before nodding her head.

"Jude is an amazing kid, and he loves you just as much as you love him and I know that it hurts him when you are in pain too. So sweets, what I'm saying is let me help you, if not for you then for Jude. Don't make him watch you suffer. I know you don't trust me yet Callie, I believe that is something that has to be earned and I would really like to start earning yours Love, will you trust me enough to let me look after you?"

Callie was stunned as Stef finished her speech. Of all the things she had expected the blonde to say, none of what she had _actually_ said came anywhere close.

She studied Stef and was further shocked when she could only see hope in the cop's face, the love and concern in her hazel eyes only serving to further confuse the teen.

Stef genuinely cared for her and the thought of the blonde wanting to look after her made Callie feel warm inside, made her feel wanted for the first time in a long time.

She didn't want to promise anything, but Stef did have a point, as much as she hated the thought of letting Stef see her so vulnerable, Callie knew how much Jude hated seeing her hurt, and by letting the blonde help her, she was not only shielding her brother from her injuries, but she hoped she would also erase the guilt she could see in the cop's eyes.

She cautiously nodded her head. Wondering, not for the first time, what it was about the blonde cop that made Callie want to trust her and if it would be worth the risk.

The blonde took another breath as she pushed on, not wanting to dwell on the major victory she felt she'd just achieved when there was so much more she had o say.

"You are going to need a lot of help when you get out of the hospital yes? Don't give me that look, you heard the doctor, you're hurting Callie and its okay to hurt, more importantly, its okay to let people help you when you are."

Aside from the brief flash of stubborn pride, Stef received no response to that comment and she heaved out a sigh, her eyes never leaving the girl in front of her as she thought about her next move. Her and Lena hadn't said anything official, but she knew they both felt the same way.

"You and Jude are going to stay with us at least until you are fully healed so that we can make sure you get the proper care that you need and then we will see where we go from there okay?"

The teen nodded apprehensively, her gaze downcast and Stef's eyes softened.

"Sweets you know that neither Lena or myself would never intentionally hurt you right? We just want you to get better Love, and for you and Jude to finally feel safe and I promise you, as long as you are with us, you _will_ be safe."

This time Callie looked up at Stef, the conviction in the cop's voice too strong to ignore. Dark eyes bored into light, searching her for any sign of contempt, trying to determine if Stef was telling the truth or not.

The blonde found herself holding her breath as she forced herself not to flinch under the teen's scrutiny. She had chased down criminals twice as big as the teenager and ten times as scary, but something about the knowing look in Callie's eye made Stef want to squirm. Callie seemed to be able to see more than Stef wanted her to.

When the teen finally nodded, Stef released her breath, nodding her head in return.

The two fell into a companionable silence as they both considered what has been said.

"No more going it alone okay? You have people now too Callie, and we all care about you"

Stef's voice was soft and Callie didn't quite know how to respond. The whole conversation was nothing like any she'd ever had before and she was feeling slightly lost now that it was over. She didn't know where she stood with Stef, only that she _did_ stand with Stef, and Stef stood with her too.

It was strange having someone in her corner again, but a small part of her was still weary of the cop, the person who had your back could just as easily stab you in it and Callie wouldn't fall for it a second time.

For the moment though, she didn't think Stef was lying to her and that left her with more questions that she was too tired to think about, the main one being; Could she trust Stef?

She blew out a stuttering breath as she considered it and Stef mistook the action as a sign of pain.

"You okay sweets?"

Callie repressed the urge to roll her eyes, staring back at Stef in silence.

The cop raised her eyebrow at Callie as she waited for her to answer the question.

Callie finally spoke for the first time in the whole conversation.

"Am I allowed to talk now?"

She was trying to prove she felt better than she looked by coming out with a snarky comment that lacked any real snark, while also kind of testing Stef to see what kind of reaction she received.

The blonde did not repress her eyes roll and snorted out a surprised laugh at the teen's question.

"Yes you are allowed to talk now!"

She smiled affectionately at the teen and was rewarded with a small smile back.

"I'm fine"

Was Callie's only response and Stef sighed. It was better than nothing. She hadn't expected the teen to take her words to heart and immediately open up. She had hoped as much, but realistically she knew better.

"Okay well-"

Whatever Stef had meant to say was cut off by the ringing of her cell phone.

_Caller ID: Bill_

"Uh I have to take this sweets, its Bill."

She watched as the teen's face immediately fell and the blonde shook her head.

"I promise you sweets, you and Jude are not going anywhere."

Her reassurance did nothing to ease the tension she could see in the teen as she stood and walked out of the room to answer the call.

Despite her promise, she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

* * *

**_Alright thats that then. Next up, a conversation with Bill for the moms and a conversation with each other for all the siblings! Anything specific you want said? put it in that lovely review box! Also a few guests have asked so i'm going to just tell you all, i am planning on bring the liam thing into this fic, obviously not the same way as the show, because Callie isn't really up for group at the moment, but somehow he'll show up! Is there any other moment you all want to see? I am on the fence about Stef's shooting being included so please let me know! _**

**_Love to here from you, i promise a sooner update next time, but if im late then go check out obsessedatopia's fics, thats probably where i'll be :O ~BC xo_**

**_Review?_**


	15. Please let them stay

**_Next chapter! this fic is now officially at over 300 reviews and i am completely amazed by that! Thank you to every reviewer, you have truly kept this story going with your comments, suggestions and encouragement! This story would be nothing and nowhere without your kind words and support so thank you :) _**

**_Shout out to Shanshay who helped me a lot with the inner workings of the foster system and Bill's reasoning! _**

* * *

Stef exited Callie's room and shut the door firmly behind her, her heart racing.

"Hey Bill"

She bit the proverbial bullet and answered the phone, trying to sound light and carefree and failing miserably at both.

"Stef, is there any news? How is Callie doing?"

Stef was relieved to hear the concern in Bill's voice. It made her feel better to know that the social worker genuinely cared about the siblings.

"I'm sorry we meant to call but its been a busy morning"

She ran her hand through her hair for the thousandth time that day and then checked her watch, surprised to find it was only nine o'clock. She was drained and exhausted and she still had a whole day to get through.

"Callie's fine, the surgery went well and she's awake and talking. The bullet missed her internal organs and major blood vessels and the doctors were able to remove it no problem. She also has some bruised ribs and two broken ones from Juvie, but there is nothing that can be done for them except rest and time"

Stef parroted Dr Morgan's words to Bill, leaving out the part she played in Callie's injuries, fearing what it would mean for the teen if the social worker knew.

She could hear Bill's hurried footsteps through the phone as he replied.

"Look Stef we have to talk, I'm at the hospital now, what room is Callie in?"

Stef's heart dropped, Bill's tone did not sound encouraging at all.

"Uh I'm with Callie in room 6029, I'll call Lena and have her meet me here as well."

She heard the ding of an elevator as Bill likely stepped onto it.

"Okay I'm on my way up."

Stef said goodbye and hung up, only to immediately dial her partner.

Lena picked up after only two rings.

"Stef? Is Callie okay? What happened?"

Lena's voice was trying to sound calm and quiet but Stef could hear the underlying panic and realised that Lena was with the kids and probably trying not to worry them.

"Callie's fine, but Bill is on his way up, could you get back to Callie's room? And don't bring the kids, I don't want to worry Jude."

Lena sighed at Stef's answer as the four of them stepped into the elevator.

"Love, we're already on our way up, I'll leave them in the waiting room on Callie's floor until we're done."

Stef nodded her head in agreement before remembering Lena couldn't see her.

"Yeah that sounds good, see you in a sec."

She hung up and blew out a cleansing breath, trying to wall up her emotions for their conversation with Bill. She had a promise to keep and she wouldn't let her fragile mental state blow it.

She leaned back against the closed door to Callie's room and closed her eyes to centre herself for a moment, opening them again and snapping back to her full height as she heard footsteps approaching.

"Bill, good to see you again."

Stef forced a smile to her face as she held out her hand, firmly shaking Bill's in greeting.

"Stef. I wish it were under better circumstances."

His face was grim and the files he held under his other arm did nothing to calm Stef's churning stomach.

"Uh Lena is on her way up and this room here is empty, I thought maybe we could all talk first before you speak to Callie. She's been through a lot and she needs all the rest she can get."

Stef's hopeful tone did not go unnoticed by Bill who sighed in response.

"I really do need to speak to Callie, and Jude as well, but I suppose we can talk first."

Stef nodded her head in thanks and was relieved to see Lena walking down the corridor behind Bill.

"Hey babe"

Stef spoke first, alerting Bill to Lena's arrival, he turned to greet the darker woman as well.

"Lena"

"Bill"

Their greetings were short and that only caused Stef to worry further. She had to keep her promise to Callie. She had to prove that the teen could trust her.

"Alright lets go in here shall we?"

Stef motioned to the door next to Callie's and stood back as Lena and Bill entered before her, closing the door behind her as she followed them in.

Lena spoke first.

"Bill, I know what I said last night, but we've had some time to think about it and we want Callie and Jude to stay with us, at least until Callie's healed."

She looked over to Stef as she spoke and the blonde nodded her head in support, relieved that Lena was getting straight to the point.

Bill walked over to the empty bed and placed his files down on the bedside table, sitting on the mattress so he was facing both women.

" I understand, but given the circumstances, it may not be in the siblings' best interest to remain in your care."

Though Stef had expected as much, it didn't hurt any less to hear her fears confirmed. She looked over at Lena who showed no sign backing down at Bill's comment.

"Why not?"

Lena's voice was hard and Stef wished she felt half as strong as her partner sounded.

"You shot the kids' foster father. In front of them no less, it may not be a good idea for them to be around the woman who killed their last foster parent"

Bill's words were directed at Stef and she could see that he was not meaning to be harsh, he was not trying to hurt her, he was just trying to make them understand the position he was in, he had an obligation to look out for the children, keep their best interests at heart. His job was not too spare the feelings of foster parents.

"He was abusing them Bill. If anything, they probably _want_ to be around Stef. She's the only one who ever actually tried to protect them."

Lena's voice was unwavering, but Stef could see the tension running through her lovers body, the way the darker woman clenched her fists and rocked back on her heels slightly told Stef that Lena was not as confident as her words made her sound.

Bill looked at his hands before looking back at the women, his eyes pained as he cleared warred with himself.

"Yes, well that's another thing. Its no secret that Callie didn't like her foster father. It was his charges against her that landed her in juvie and from what I understand, you followed her to Jude's foster home last night. Her actions last night could be seen as her trying to get her revenge on him, leading a cop to his house and putting herself in a position where he had to be killed."

The look on Bill's face told Stef that he didn't truly believe what he was saying, or that he didn't want to believe it in any case.

"That's ridiculous! She left school early, made sure she went out the back so she wouldn't get caught, and then when Stef did get to the house, Callie tried to convince her _not_ to shoot that awful man!"

Lena was rapidly running out of steam and her voice broke slightly as she finished her tirade, editing the last bit of her argument so that Bill wouldn't know what Callie had done; how Callie had protected Stef.

Bill scrubbed a hand over his face.

"What are we looking at here Bill? What is it you want to do with them?"

Stef was tired of arguing aimlessly she needed to know his intentions so that she had something solid to argue against.

"For now it may be best if Jude was placed with a different family. It would not be beneficial for him to be in the care of the person who killed his last foster father and he will probably need counselling, both he and Callie will also need to see a psychologist. Callie will be placed in a group home when she is released from the hospital, they will be able to take care of her and give her the care she requires."

Bill looked uncomfortable with his own suggestion and Stef immediately jumped at that.

"You are not splitting them up."

Her voice brooked no argument and she would have sworn she saw Bill's shoulder's relax slightly at her statement.

His reactions were puzzling her and she couldn't understand what his game was.

Bill nodded his head. He was glad Stef had said that, he remembered the last time he had tried to separate the two. They'd clung to each other and screamed bloody murder. Callie had been extremely injured at the time and Bill had stopped trying almost immediately, terrified she would hurt herself further if he persisted in trying to remove her brother.

"Bill please, they have both been through so much, they need each other now and they need a stable environment and you know that we can provide that. Jude has already taken a shine to Brandon and Callie is slowly starting to open up. We can take care of them Bill."

Stef could see Lena nodding in her peripheral vision, but her eyes stayed locked on Bill, it was his reaction that mattered most.

"I really don't think its a good idea Stef. I know they would be safe physically, but its their mental wellbeing I'm worried about."

In truth, Bill didn't know how the siblings would take to being in the Foster's home, but he didn't want to run the risk of hurting them. He knew they'd been through a lot, despite his very best efforts to keep them safe.

It was days like these he really hated hit job.

Stef and Lena were both at a loss for what to say, neither knew how to convince Bill and neither were prepared to lose the siblings.

A knock on the door broke the tension and all three adults were surprised when it was Jude who stuck his head into the room.

"Lena-"

Jude cut himself off before he could ask his question, seeing Bill talking to his latest foster parents had the blood rapidly draining out of his face.

Bill had complete control over him and Callie, he decided where they went and whether they stayed together or not. Seeing Bill rarely meant good news. It usually meant they were being removed from one hell-hole and placed in another.

The door swung open completely and Jude stood in the middle of it, looking more scared than either woman had seen him yet.

Jude took a breath and tried his best to channel Callie as he spoke, willing his voice to sound brave and strong.

"Are you gonna take us away?"

He had been going for 'brave' and 'strong' but instead, he had sounded frightened and panicked at the thought.

Nine was like Base. It had taken them six years, seven schools and nine homes to find a good one and now there was the chance they would be taken from it and Jude was scared.

Stef looked at Bill and Lena before looking back at Jude and answering him.

"Not if we can help it bud"

She gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile, but judging by the look on his face, she gathered that it was anything but.

"Do you want to stay with us sweetie?"

Lena had finally regained her composure. Her and Stef were a tag team, they jumped in for each other and covered each other when the other needed a moment and she was tagging back in.

Jude nodded his head and looked at Bill, his eyes begging the social worker to let them stay.

Bill studied Jude carefully. The boy was easy to read and what Bill could see in his face gave the social worker hope. Maybe Callie and Jude had finally found a soft place to land.

He looked between Stef and Lena who wore similar expressions to Jude and finally gave in.

"We're just sorting out the paperwork Jude, nothing to worry about."

He smiled at the boy, who shyly smiled back.

"I'm gonna go tell Callie"

He turned to leave, trying his best to hide his excitement when Lena stopped him.

"Jude did you need something? You looked like you had a question when you came in?"

She raised her eyebrows as she looked at the newest, if temporary, addition to their family.

Jude shook his head as he answered.

"No it doesn't matter, I'll just ask Callie"

Lena nodded her head as he left, sighing as the door closed and she made eye contact with Stef.

They were going to have to break him of that habit, turning to Callie instead of them. Lena smiled as she realised they would have plenty of time to do just that.

Bill cleared his throat.

"For now, Callie and Jude can remain in your care, however, they will both need to be assessed by a psychologist, and if after the assessment it is decided that they require more care than you can provide them or that this is not a good fit, then both siblings will be removed."

Bill looked expectantly at the couple who nodded their heads in agreement.

"This is Callie's file, and this is Jude's. All hospital visits, red flags, and important information from their past are documented in here."

He stood and handed Stef the files, Callie's nearly double the size of Jude's, which was still quite thick.

The blonde nodded and held the files to her chest.

All the answers to all the questions she had were in the files she now held in her grasp. A part of her wanted to read Callie's, but a bigger part of her wanted the teen to divulge the information herself.

She had time to decide which part to give into.

"Thank you Bill, we will take great care of them."

It was Lena who spoke, moving to shake Bill's hand.

The social worker smiled at her as he replied.

"They're great kids, they've just had bad luck."

Stef nodded as she too shook Bill's hand, bidding him a farewell as he left the women alone with a promise to get in touch soon to speak to both Callie and Jude properly.

"They're staying."

Lena broke the silence, looking at Stef with wide eyes.

The blonde smiled as she pulled Lena into a hug with her free arm.

"Thats right babe, we just went from three teenagers to four and a half!"

Lena chuckled softly.

"We should get back to the kids."

Stef sighed at her partner's suggestion.

"If we must!"

She acted put-out but Lena could see that the blonde was anxious to see her babies again.

They walked out of the empty room and back into Callie's, surprised to find all the kids already in there.

"Hey guys, didn't mama tell you to wait in the waiting room?"

Stef furrowed her brows as she took in the site of her three guilty children, all sitting around the room in chairs they seemed to have procured from other rooms.

"We were just talking"

Mariana was the one to respond on behalf of the group and Stef smiled, walking towards her daughter while Lena moved towards the bed, where Callie and Jude were once again snuggled up together.

"Okay well speaking of talking, we all have something to talk about obviously."

Stef started off the conversation, looking to Lena as the brunette took over.

"We had a meeting with Bill and we've come to a decision. We are not in a position to offer Callie and Jude a home forever.."

She trailed off and Stef picked the thread up.

"But we would like you guys to be as comfortable and safe as possible until Bill _does_ find you a permanent home, however long that may take"

Lena nodded as the blonde finished speaking, waiting to see how their children reacted to the news.

"Jude already told us they're staying, we're cool with it."

Jesus looked at his twin and his brother as he spoke, both of them nodding their agreement at his words.

Stef had her eyes on the siblings in the hospital bed who seemed to be silently conversing, talking without saying a word.

Finally Callie broke their eye contact, looking straight at Stef and nodding her head once.

Stef nodded back, they didn't need words.

She had kept her promise. She had started to earn Callie's trust. Now all she had to do was keep it.

* * *

**_Okay so next chapter will be the sibling conversation that took place at the same time as this chapter and then the chapter after that, callie will be going home! Let me know if there is anything you want to see in either of those chapters! _**

**_All mistakes were my own, it is 3am here, i am bound to have missed something so feel free to point it out!_**

**_Please review, they really keep me writing and inspire me to do it faster! _**

**_Much love, BC xo_**


	16. I'M SO SORRY!

_**I'm so incredibly sorry for how long it has taken me to get around to this, I have been in the hospital with what doctors think was Malaria! I am getting better at the moment but not back up to full strength! I have so many ideas for this fic but my migraine has prevented me from doing anything involving light (including reading the computer screen) but i am starting work on the next chapter and will get it posted sometime in the next week i promise! I am so sorry for the wait, please stick with me, i am not abandoning this fic! **_

**_I also have a mountain load of fics to catch up on so to anyone who's story i am reading i am so looking forward to reading and reviewing all of them! _**

_**Much love, BC xo **_


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